An American architecture professor at a university in the Middle East is developing an energy-saving way to make bricks using bacteria known for its ability to solidify sand.
Ginger Krieg Dosier, assistant professor of architecture at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, has developed a method that involves filling a form with alternating layers of sand and a solution containing urea, calcium chloride and the non-pathogenic Sporosarcina pasteurii (or Bacillus pasteurii). Within a few days, a chain of chemical reactions yields a mineral growth that seeps between the grains of sand and “biocements” them together into a brick.