Bio-Rock is natural material based on sedimentation of dissolved minerals like Carbone and calcium on metal like steel using electricity.
Bio-Rock was first invented in 1976 by the Architect Professor Wolf Hilbertz to produce natural building materials in the sea. The idea was to put steel structure in the ocean and connect it with solar panels in order to provide enough electricity for the rock to form and grow. This process takes from 1 to 2 years for the rock to grow 1-2 cm on the steel frame.
This project aims to accelerate the growth of the Bio-Rock by testing different solutions using sea water mixed with different amounts of carbon, calcium and phosphate.
How Bio-Rock Works?
Bio-Rock grow by putting the steel mesh, where the rock will grow on, with an aluminum bar in sea salt solution. Connect the steel mesh with the cathode of the energy source and the aluminum bar with the anode.
After several experiments with different solutions, we managed to see results in the first hour when 25g carbonate calcium and 50g Tri-Carbonate Phosphate where added to 800g of sea salt water connected to 12v energy source. In 5 hours we had almost 1 cm of rock formed over the steel.
How does Bio-Rock Grow?
"The Closer to the anode, the bigger the rock".
The rock starts forming from the nearest point to the anode and continues to grow to the other direction following the steel frame design and taking the nearest path it touches. Following that logic, the steel frame I designed followed the shortest walk algorithm that emerges from one-point which it’s the closest to the anode forming a dense spot for the larger part of the rock to settle on tell it reaches for the final growth.
Bio-Rock Chair
Bio-Rock chair is designed to test the strength properties of the new material after accelerating the growth of the rock .
Note: The project is still under experiments ...
