{"id":42376,"date":"2022-11-28T18:00:33","date_gmt":"2022-11-28T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/?p=42376"},"modified":"2022-11-28T17:24:38","modified_gmt":"2022-11-28T16:24:38","slug":"3d-printing-soil-seeds-281120225","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/3d-printing-soil-seeds-281120225\/","title":{"rendered":"3D Printing Can Be Done With Soil and Seeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

3D printing in housing <\/a>is usually done with concrete materials, but this produces homes which, while well-insulated, can be sometimes expensive and with interior temperatures which are difficult to regulate. Furthermore, concrete is not a particularly environmentally friendly material; according to the Guardian in 2019, all parts of production considered it accounts for 4.9% of global <\/span>CO\u2082 <\/span>production. It is also a non-renewable resource. For this reason, researchers at the University of Virginia have tried out an alternative 3D printing method using soil-based ink.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ji Ma, the assistant professor of materials science and engineering at UVA\u2019s School of Engineering and Applied Science, collaborated with Ma forged a partnership with <\/span>DAVID CARR<\/span>, a research professor in UVA\u2019s Department of Environmental Sciences, and <\/span>EHSAN BAHARLOU<\/span>, an assistant professor in UVA\u2019s School of Architecture. Also working on the project was Spencer Barnes, a recent graduate of the University. The latter experimented with different soil-based \u2018inks\u2019, using two different methods: the first, alternating layers of soil and seed, and the second, mixing the two before printing. These methods were used to create a cylindrical prototype.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The team created a soil ‘ink’ which can be extruded in FDM printing (Photo credit: Ehsan Baharlou).<\/p><\/div>\n

The use of locally-sourced biomaterials<\/a> could be important for construction. Any waste materials can be recycled back into the process, creating a circular economy and sustainable process. 3D printing with soil is of course a long way from being used to produce entire homes or even rooms, but as sustainability becomes increasingly important it is possible that people will view the use of soil as a valid and good choice for housing. <\/span><\/p>

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The mixing in of seeds means that within days the soil creations begin to sprout, becoming reminiscent of the green buildings popular in Singapore, for example. This brings obvious advantages: the plants absorb sunlight, reducing temperature, as well as absorbing <\/span>CO\u2082 <\/span>and other pollutants. They are also pleasing to the eye, far more so than simple soil, so can provide a long-term solution to unappealing architecture which has a marked negative effect on people’s moods.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ehsan Baharlou focuses on materializing designs. (Photo credit: Tom Daly).<\/p><\/div>\n

You can find more information about this project HERE<\/a>. What do you think about soil-based 3D printing? Would you live in a house made out of this material? Let us know in a comment below or on our\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>,<\/span>\u00a0Facebook<\/a>, and<\/span>\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0pages! Don\u2019t forget to sign up for our free weekly<\/span>\u00a0Newsletter here<\/a>, the latest 3D printing news straight to your inbox! You can also find all our videos on our<\/span>\u00a0YouTube<\/a>\u00a0channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

*Cover photo credits: E. Baharlou<\/p>\n

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3D printing in housing is usually done with concrete materials, but this produces homes which, while well-insulated, can be sometimes expensive and with interior temperatures which are difficult to regulate. Furthermore, concrete is not a particularly environmentally friendly material; according…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6095,"featured_media":42378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-3d-materials","category-news","category-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6095"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42376"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42502,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42376\/revisions\/42502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3dnatives.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}