Indian student in UK develops revolutionary carbon-extracting biomaterial

London: An Indian student at University College London (UCL) is working on a new construction biomaterial that uses living microorganisms to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which has the potential to dramatically reduce carbon footprint if mass-produced and widely adopted by the building industry.

Prantar Tamuli, a Master’s degree student in the Biochemical Engineering Department at UCL, recently unveiled the material as part of an art installation at St Andrews Botanic Garden in Scotland. It incorporates living cyanobacteria into translucent panels that can be mounted on to the interior walls of buildings and as the microorganisms embedded within the panels grow using photosynthesis, they pull carbon dioxide out of the air.

“My aim by developing the C-ELM material is to transform the act of constructing our future human habitats from the biggest carbon-emitting activity to the largest carbon-sequestering one,” said Tamuli.

Through a biomineralisation process, the captured CO2 is affixed to calcium to create calcium carbonate, locking away the carbon. A kilogram of the biomaterial, known as a cyanobacterial engineered living material or C-ELM, can capture and sequester up to 350g of carbon dioxide. Comparatively, the same amount of traditional concrete would emit as much as 500g of carbon dioxide. Therefore, a 150 square metre wall cladded with such C-ELM panels could lock away approximately one tonne of carbon dioxide.

“The promise of this kind of biomaterial is tremendous. If mass produced and widely adopted, it could dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the construction industry. We hope that to scale up the manufacture of this C-ELM and further optimise its performance to be better suited for use in construction,” said Professor Marcos Cruz of UCL Bartlett School of Architecture and co-director of the Bio-Integrated Design Programme.

Tamuli developed C-ELM under the guidance of research supervisors during his earlier MSc degree in Bio-Integrated Design. Over the COVID-19 lockdown in London, he developed a new process for culturing the cyanobacteria at his home without access to his lab or conventional equipment.

Dr Brenda Parker of UCL Biochemical Engineering and co-director of the Bio-Integrated Design Programme added: “By breaking down traditional disciplinary silos we can enable discoveries such as these. It is an exciting moment where biotechnology has the potential to transform how we design and build more sustainably.”

A patent for the C-ELM technology has been filed by UCL’s commercialisation company, UCL Business. Tamuli says he was inspired to develop the material by studying stromatolites, natural stony structures formed over millions of years from sediments trapped by some of the Earth’s most ancient living organisms, algal mats. He focused on the species Kamptonema animale, a photosynthetic cyanobacteria which grows in long strands, making it easy to bind the microorganisms to the surrounding material within the panels. The calcium carbonate that the cyanobacteria produce helps to strengthen and reinforce the panels.

The panels themselves are designed to offer a range of cosmetic and structural benefits for buildings. They are lightweight, sound absorbing, translucent enough to transmit light through and thermally insulating so as to enhance the energy efficiency of buildings.

The first such panels were publicly demonstrated at an installation inside the ‘Bioscope’ pavilion at St Andrews Botanic Garden. Designed by the design collective Studio Biocene, the display showcased low-carbon and low-impact construction methods that mimic a natural environment.