UCT student creates world's first bio-brick

UCT student creates world's first urine bio-brick

‘Liquid Gold’ is how UCT engineers describe urine which has now been used by a Master’s student in civil engineering to create the world’s first bio-brick grown from human urine. Suzanne Lambert’s supervisor and senior lecturer in water quality at UCT, Dyllon Randall, said the concept of using urea to grow bricks was tested in the US years ago, using synthetic solutions. However, Lambert’s brick uses real human urine, with significant consequences for recycling and upcycling. Randall said: ‘The bio-bricks are created through a natural process called microbial carbonate precipitation, not unlike the way seashells are formed. Loose sand is colonised with bacteria that produce urease. The urease breaks down the urea in urine while producing calcium carbonate through a chemical reaction. This cements the sand into any shape, whether a solid column or, now for the first time, a rectangular building brick.’ Bio-bricks are made in moulds at room temperature. Regular bricks are kiln-fired at temperatures around 1 400°C and produce vast quantities of carbon dioxide.