Oyster shells; building eco-material?

[gentil33]

Just a question probably innocent. Is it possible, even interesting, to use oyster shells or any hulls from marine organisms to make cement for the building?

[stipe]

I live in a region that has historically produced buttons (for example, a shirt) made from shell mother-of-pearl, so there are regular vestiges of this past industry represented by the remains of shells with the negative impression of the cookie cutter.

In short, I have already noticed at home a wall mounted in "stone" made of shell cement. So I would say it's already been done, yeah

[gentil33]

I am talking about shells to replace the limestone extracted from quarries and used to make cement according to conventional processes (passage in the oven at 1450 °).

[elephant]

Pressurize, patient a few million years, you will get either marble or blue stone

[gentil33]

According to you, which is the living organism most producing limestone to make cement?

[dedeleco]

Any marine or aquatic animal making a beautiful small or large shell, reproducing quickly!
And given the thickness of Km of rocks thus formed over millions of years, there are many different, from small to large !!

And in addition effectively remove CO2, and without them we would not be here at 20 ° C but rotated at 100 ° C !!

[highfly-addict]

To make cement?
Lime prepared from shells was once renowned for its finesse, so it must surely work well!

[gentil33]

ok, but I ask which organism cultivated in aquaculture would make enough limestone to produce cement?

[dedeleco]

Cement also requires clay (25 to 20%) in addition:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciment
Oysters and others grow quickly depending on the conditions but it is like the wood of trees to make fire, it is not hyper-fast, because it takes photosynthesis of organisms that eaten serve to transform calcium chloride into calcium carbonate, carbonate from photosynthesis.
So logically you need a maximum of photosynthetic plankton (cyanobacteria, micro-algae, etc.) in the water to feed oysters and other shell critters !!

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolithe
An alga that does both:
http://www.boutique-biogenese.fr/index. ... 1&Itemid=1

So the answer depends on the location and the natural richness of the water used for aquaculture, very variable according to the places in the world (biotope ) !!

Nevertheless, this is a very good and not an easy question, which is a very powerful way to absorb excess CO2 of our atmosphere and which has been operating for 3,8 billion years, like the Stromatoliths !!!
http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stromatolithe

[gentil33]

I thank you dedeleco. You understood that I was wondering whether we could make concrete as a sustainable development material like wood. Because doing without concrete is a challenge. So you might as well think about it to make it "ecological", and that should be possible if we think about it seriously.