Biowelding 3D-Printed Biodigital Brick of Seashell-Based Biocomposite by Pleurotus ostreatus Mycelium.

Mycelium biocomposites are eco-friendly, cheap, easy to produce, and have competitive mechanical properties. However, their integration in the built environment as durable and long-lasting materials is not solved yet. Similarly, biocomposites from recycled food waste such as seashells have been gaining increasing interest recently, thanks to their sustainable impact and richness in calcium carbonate and chitin. The current study tests the mycelium binding effect to bioweld a seashell biocomposite 3D-printed brick. The novelty of this study is the combination of mycelium and a non-agro-based substrate, which is seashells. As well as testing the binding capacity of mycelium in welding the lattice curvilinear form of the V3 linear Brick model (V3-LBM). Thus, the V3-LBM is 3D printed in three separate profiles, each composed of five layers of 1 mm/layer thickness, using seashell biocomposite by paste extrusion and testing it for biowelding with Pleurotus ostreatus mycelium to offer a sustainable, ecofriendly, biomineralized brick. The biowelding process investigated the penetration and binding capacity of the mycelium between every two 3D-printed profiles. A cellulose-based culture medium was used to catalyse the mycelium growth. The mycelium biowelding capacity was investigated by SEM microscopy and EDX chemical analysis of three samples from the side corner (S), middle (M), and lateral (L) zones of the biowelded brick. The results revealed that the best biowelding effect was recorded at the corner and lateral zones of the brick. The SEM images exhibited the penetration and the bridging effect achieved by the dense mycelium. The EDX revealed the high concentrations of carbon, oxygen, and calcium at all the analyzed points on the SEM images from all three samples. An inverted relationship between carbon and oxygen as well as sodium and potassium concentrations were also detected, implying the active metabolic interaction between the fungal hyphae and the seashell-based biocomposite. Finally, the results of the SEM-EDX analysis were applied to design favorable tessellation and staking methods for the V3-LBM from the seashell-mycelium composite to deliver enhanced biowelding effect along the Z axis and the XY axis with <1 mm tessellation and staking tolerance.

The New Standard Is Biodigital: Durable and Elastic 3D-Printed Biodigital Clay Bricks.

In a previously published study, the authors explained the formal design efficiency of the 3D-printed biodigital clay bricks 3DPBDCB: a project that aimed to change the conventional methods of clay brick design and mass production. This was achieved by employing the behavioural algorithms of reaction-diffusion and the shortest path that were extracted from the exact material physical properties and hydrophilic behaviours of clay and controlled material deposition 3D printing to create sustainable clay bricks. Sustainability in their use in the built environment and their production processes, with full potential sustainability aspects such as passive cooling, thermal and acoustical insulation, and bio receptivity. The current work studies the mechanical properties of the 3D-printed biodigital clay bricks as elastic and durable clay bricks whose properties depend mainly on their geometrical composition and form. Each of the three families of the 3D-printed biodigital clay bricks (V1, V2, V3) includes the linear model of a double line of 0.5 cm thickness and a bulk model of 55% density were tested for compression and elasticity and compared to models of standard industrial clay bricks. The results revealed that the best elasticity pre-cracking was achieved by the V2 linear model, followed by the V3 linear model, which also achieved the highest post-cracking elasticity-enduring until 150 N pre-cracking and 200 N post-cracking, which makes the V3 linear model eligible for potential application in earthquake-resistant buildings. While the same model V3-linear achieved the second-best compressive strength enduring until 170 N. The best compressive strength was recorded by the V1 linear and bulk model enduring up to 240 N without collapsing, exceeding the strength and resistance of the industrial clay bricks with both models, where the bulk and the perforated collapsed at 200 N and 140 N, respectively. Thus, the mass production and integration of the V1 bulk and linear model and the V3 linear model are recommended for the construction industry and the architectural built environment for their multi-aspect sustainability and enhanced mechanical properties.

3D-Printed Biodigital Clay Bricks.

Construction materials and techniques have witnessed major advancements due to the application of digital tools in the design and fabrication processes, leading to a wide array of possibilities, especially in additive digital manufacturing tools and 3D printing techniques, scales, and materials. However, possibilities carry responsibilities with them and raise the question of the sustainability of 3D printing applications in the built environment in terms of material consumption and construction processes: how should one use digital design and 3D printing to achieve minimum material use, minimum production processes, and optimized application in the built environment? In this work, we propose an optimized formal design of "Biodigital Barcelona Clay Bricks" to achieve sustainability in the use of materials. These were achieved by using a bottom-up methodology of biolearning to extract the formal grammar of the bricks that is suitable for their various applications in the built environment as building units, thereby realizing the concept of formal physiology, as well as employing the concept of fractality or pixilation by using 3D printing to create the bricks as building units on an architectural scale. This enables the adoption of this method as an alternative construction procedure instead of conventional clay brick and full-scale 3D printing of architecture on a wider and more democratic scale, avoiding the high costs of 3D printing machines and lengthy processes of the one-step, 3D-printed, full-scale architecture, while also guaranteeing minimum material consumption and maximum forma-function coherency. The "Biodigital Barcelona Clay Bricks" were developed using Rhinoceros 3D and Grasshopper 3D + Plugins (Anemone and Kangaroo) and were 3D printed in clay.

Employing Laccase-Producing Aspergillus sydowii NYKA 510 as a Cathodic Biocatalyst in Self-Sufficient Lighting Microbial Fuel Cell.

In the present work, we isolated and identified Aspergillus sydowii NYKA 510 as the most potent laccase producer. Its medium constituents were optimized to produce the highest possible amount of laccase, which was after 7 days at 31°C and pH 5.2. Banana peel and peptone excelled in inducing laccase production at concentrations of 15.1 and 2.60 g/l, respectively. Addition of copper sulfate elevated enzyme yield to 145%. The fungus was employed in a microbial fuel cell (MFC). The best performance was obtained at 2000 Ω achieving 0.76 V, 380 mAm-2, 160 mWm-2, and 0.4 W. A project to design a self-sufficient lighting unit was implemented by employing a system of 2 sets of 4 MFCs each, connected in series, for electricity generation. A scanning electron microscopy image of A. sydowii NYKA 510 was utilized in algorithmic form generation equations for the design. The mixed patterning and patterned customized mass approach were developed by the authors and chosen for application in the design.