Strong and CO2 Consuming Living Wood for Buildings

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Program:
HESTIA
Award:
$958,245
Location:
West Lafayette, Indiana
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
10/18/2022 - 10/17/2023

Critical Need:

HESTIA addresses the need for implementing carbon removal strategies by converting buildings into carbon storage structures. HESTIA is also important for nullifying embodied emissions. The majority of these emissions are concentrated at the start of a building’s lifetime and locked in before the building is ever used. This upfront emissions spike equals 10 years of operational emissions in a building constructed to meet standard code, but increases to 35 years for more advanced, higher operating efficiency buildings, and more than 50 years for high-efficiency buildings operating on a lower carbon intensity grid. These time horizons go beyond 2050 climate targets, which means embodied emission reduction strategies are a high priority.

Project Innovation + Advantages:

Purdue University will harness microbial activities to reinforce the load-bearing structure of wood to the strength of steel, increase its fire resistance and lifetime, and lower technological barriers to manufacturing uniform wood composite materials. The “living wood” has a self-healing capability that breathes in CO2 and produces biomaterials to fill up and bond possible cracks. The process is intrinsically scalable and cost-effective due to the bulk treatment of wood and exponential manufacturing of microbes.

Potential Impact:

HESTIA projects will facilitate the use of carbon storing materials in building construction to achieve net carbon negativity by optimizing material chemistries and matrices, manufacturing, and whole-building designs in a cost-effective manner.

Security:

HESTIA technologies will reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment.

Environment:

Building materials and designs developed under HESTIA will draw down and store CO2 from the atmosphere.

Economy:

A variety of promising carbon storing materials are being explored and commercialized for building construction. Currently these materials are generally scarcer, cost more per unit, and/or face performance challenges (e.g., flame resistance for biogenic carbon-containing materials). HESTIA seeks technologies that overcome these barriers while nullifying associated emissions and increasing the total amount of carbon stored in the finished product.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Marina Sofos
Project Contact:
Dr. Tian Li
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
tianli@purdue.edu

Partners

Michigan State University

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Release Date:
06/13/2022