DID YOU KNOW?

Common causes of concrete damage & how to mitigate them

High-grade concrete without heat-of-hydration treatment is prone to thermal cracking.
Marine concrete without watertightness treatment is prone to corrosion & spalling.

→ Bioconc is an integral solution to both risks.

Mitigate thermal cracking by reducing cement content with Bioconc. The mycelia produced by Bioconc act as a microfiller, inserting into the cement paste to fill micropores, or reducing cement content, while the target concrete grade is still achieved. Cement is both the largest CO₂ emitter and the largest production cost in a concrete mix. Nanotechnology that reduces cement use in concrete, Green Concrete Technology, delivers lower concrete production costs and reduced CO₂ emissions.

Heat of hydration & thermal cracking

More cement means more heat of hydration. In mass concreting, a temperature gap of more than 20°C between core and surface triggers thermal cracks. Bioconc treatment is therefore needed to reduce cement, which automatically reduces the heat of hydration and avoids potential thermal cracking.

Shrinkage cracks & rebar corrosion

Bioconc mitigates shrinkage cracking, preventing potential rebar corrosion. Without shrinkage-crack mitigation, hairline cracks can form that let oxygen and water penetrate the concrete down to the rebar, causing corrosion that reduces the durability and service life of the concrete.

Bioconc Reduces Concrete Production Costs

Bioconc reduces the cement content of a concrete mix by up to 35%, which means lower construction costs.

Bioconc Integral Watertightness & Spalling

Bioconc_09 increases concrete watertightness. A DIN EN 12390-8:2009-07 watertightness test at the Universitas Indonesia Construction Laboratory measured 15.8 mm water penetration ≪ 25 mm, meeting the watertightness requirement (see brochure ↗).

BIOCONC MICROBIAL PERFORMANCE

Mycelia grow exponentially to fill concrete micropores

One of the Bioconc microbes produces mycelia that grow exponentially until setting time, filling the concrete’s micropores — delivering the following 4 benefits.

Reference — Bioconc-Based Green Concrete Quality Treatment ↗ Reference — Optimum Concrete Compression Strength Using Bio-Enzyme (MATEC Web of Conferences, 2017): optimal Bioconc dosage 450–650 cc/m³ of concrete ↗

Lower cement content — lower CO₂ emissions from concrete production, a positive carbon-footprint contribution.

Lower cement content = lower concrete production cost.

Lower cement content = lower heat of hydration.

Lower heat of hydration = thermal-crack mitigation and more durable concrete.

THE SOLUTION

Bioconc comes in three product variants

Bioconc improves concrete quality by refining the jobmix fractions: Bioconc mycelia “insert” into the concrete’s micropores, reducing cement and improving concrete watertightness.

The combined action of several Bioconc microbes produces three variants: Bioconc_07, Bioconc_08 and Bioconc_09.

Bioconc_07 — Microfiller

Lower cement, lower production cost and lower heat of hydration — thermal-crack mitigation

Bioconc_08 — Self Healer

Concrete crack recovery — microbes produce urease, which reacts with calcite to form CaCO₃

Bioconc_09 — Concrete Bio-Integral Watertightness

Improves concrete watertightness as Bioconc inserts into the concrete’s micropores through Bio-Integral Watertightness, preventing water / corrosive liquids from intruding into the micropores, which prevents corrosion of the reinforcing steel and preserves the concrete’s durability.

HOW BIOCONC WORKS

Filling the gaps between aggregates while using cement more efficiently

Bioconc improves concrete quality using Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP — Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation): an eco-friendly bio-mineralisation technique that improves concrete quality, addresses structural defects and provides self-healing properties (self healing concrete).

Bioconc increases compressive strength and reduces heat of hydration, producing Low Heat Concrete widely used in mass concrete pours (mass concreting), and delivers Self-Healing Concrete. This self-healing property is key to therecovery of shrinkage cracks (shrinkage crack) in concrete, improving its durability and service life.

Research Curve: Optimal Bioconc Dosage (Litre) / m3 Concrete

Least quartic fit — compressive strength (MPa) vs bio enzyme (liter)

Chart of concrete compressive strength vs Bioconc dosage

Research on the optimal Bioconc dosage (litre) / m3 concrete, referencing the following journal:
Optimum Concrete Compression Strength Using Bio-Enzyme — ResearchGate ↗

HOW IT WORKS

Bioconc Green Concrete Innovation

A solid black liquid (SG 1.25 kg/m³, pH 8.6) containing natural organics, denatured protein, biopolymer surfactant and organic minerals. Optimal dosage 500–600 cc per m³ of concrete.

Mycelia fill the micropores

Microbes go dormant as the concrete sets

O₂ supply is blocked from setting onward, until a crack forms and the self-healing mechanism starts (step 3).

When a crack forms, microbes activate and produce urease

Urease + calcite in the crack form CaCO₃ — permanent crack recovery, formulated as: (NH₂)₂CO + H₂O → CO₃²⁻ → CaCO₃.

SEM of regular concrete

SEM of concrete with Bioconc Admixture

Dormancy → Activation → Enzyme reaction → Regeneration

See the impact on your jobmix

Simulate cement reduction, the new composition and production cost savings for the concrete grade you use.

Open the jobmix simulator Read research & test data