Towards sustainable biobased circularity in digitalized building: pilot scale 3D printing upcycled biomass in cement

Research Project, 2024 – 2026

The increasing demand for buildings has increased the use of cement, and challenged the sustainable spatial planning and the climate. Repairing and reusing old buildings, as one of sustainable spatial planning strategies, provides significant environmental benefits and has become an important research focus. 3D printing is a digital solution for creating custom building components at a lower cost. Without the need for molds, making it ideal for the repair and reuse of old buildings. Using biomass from reproduct can effectively reduce the use of energy-intensive cement or fossil-based plastics in 3D printing. The project aims to validate and demonstrate our innovative pilot-scale solutions for using biomass in cement 3D printing. This includes increasing biofiber stability in cement and further advance machine learning. By collaboration with architects to integrate new building design with biomaterials and the print process.The project results will primarily be implemented with the industrial partners in the project consortium, biomass material supplier Biofiber Tech AB and the 3D printer constructor Concreteprint AB. Together with research and development from Chalmers University of Technology and Umeå School of Architecture, to be disseminated to external partners. In addition, the results can be used in other related industrial sectors such as cement, housing and recycling.The project aims to influence UN sustainability goals:12.5, 9.4 and 12.8.