Project description
A toxic-free soil stabilisation solution
Soil stabilisation represents the most important step in the building industry. However, existing stabilisation methods are expensive and harmful to the environment since their products contain toxic chemicals. On the other hand, CO2 emissions generated by cement production represent 5 % of global CO2 emissions, with plans to reduce them by 70 % by 2050. As a consequence, new technologies are indispensable to reduce emissions and eliminate toxic chemicals associated with soil stabilisation methods. The EU-funded BioPetrify project proposes a natural soil stabilisation solution that is applicable in both new and restored construction plans and is 10 times cheaper than other solutions. The solution is environmentally friendly, flexible, and easily applied to any soil and construction type.
Objective
Stabilising the soil around us is paramount to our own safety within our homes and surroundings. Today, the most effective and reliable soil stabilisation methods (cement and chemical additives) are expensive and harmful to the environment. Cement production alone represents 5% of all global human-created CO2 emissions. The market for soil stabilisation hasn’t been disrupted in decades, with toxic industrial fluids such as acrylamide, and heavy equipment still required for manufacture and application. It is widely agreed that new technologies are desperately needed to reduce CO2 emissions of the cement industry by 70% by 2050 as well as to eliminate the use of toxic chemicals from soil stabilisation applications. Our innovation, BioPetrify, offers a natural soil stabilisation solution for use in both new and repair construction projects. BioPetrify offers the first liquid agent able to turn soil into stone, harnessing the power of a harmless microorganism in an industrially scalable way, to achieve compressive strength of conventional construction materials, sustainably. No heavy machinery needed, no CO2 released. BioPetrify is readily integrable into existing construction processes and time-scales and tailorable to each unique soil and construction type. Application is even possible under existing structures, where it is 10x cheaper than existing solutions. BioPetrify not only represents the solution to the environmental and physical limitations of current stabilisation methods, but offers a lever for market expansion of current stabilisation material providers (e.g. adding strength to geotextile), with whom we are already partnering. Our primary target customers will thus be European market-leading construction companies. With the potential to displace today’s polluting soil stabilisation methods (a €24.7 billion market), we expect to grow quickly, selling 400,000 tonnes of our product and creating more than 100 new jobs already by 2026.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
CH-1260 NYON
Switzerland
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.