French researchers are turning discarded oyster shells into eco-friendly concrete with significantly lower CO₂ emissions. Currently being tested along the French Atlantic coast, this material could replace scarce sand and gravel while supporting marine life.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00If we go to the coast of the world, we can see that the coquillages are used to be used to make wood.
00:06In the Sénégal, in the Maroc, on all the coast, the coquillage was used as a first material material in traditional construction.
00:14However, the fact that we can broyer these coquillages and use them as classic granules to obtain the same properties as classic granules, that is very innovative.
00:23What is good?
00:24What is really innovative in our team is that we will completely replace the skeleton granules by the broyads of coquilles, both the sable and the gravier.
00:36The coquilles, in fact, are globally an analog to calcium, carbonate.
00:41Nature always works with the most simple elements.
00:44The calcium is something that is often used as material for construction.
00:49We will finally save the resources because we do not use classic sable, and the classic sable is rare now in the world.
00:56We will also be able to have a material that uses a cement that is less carbonated,
01:01and therefore, we will have a material that, globally, has an environmental cost that is less.
01:06And then, our material has a better biocompatibility.
01:09And finally, it can also help better colonize the ecosystems that have been degraded.
01:15In other words, we can also think of applications for artificial artifacts.