Research Projects

Moulds, a type of fungus, and insects are a major challenge for indoor environments in Indian households, especially during and after the monsoon. In general, typical preventive strategies suggest regular surface cleaning and reduction of moisture, but have not been effective due to poor hygiene practices and construction design in several Indian households. The idea is to develop a passive bio-based construction material to act as a shield for seepage, insects and moulds. Available literature shows that different bacterial strains have insect repellent and mould preventive capabilities, and can be potentially used with cement composites. However, the current research is limited to bio-cementation-based applications, without attempting to embed the functional properties of bacteria into the cement composites. This inspired the idea of embedding specific non-pathogenic bacteria in cementitious composites, which can introduce additional functional properties, i.e., insect and mould prevention. The project aims to develop a new class of construction material, named bio-shielded cement composites, for the prevention of seepage, insects, and moulds. For this the proposed research has five key scientific objectives; i.e., 1) Identification of bacterial strains for their compatibility with cement, aggregate and admixtures, for their potential incorporation in cementitious composites; 2) Development and evaluation of bacterial cementitious composites as building materials for insect-repellent, mould-prevention and seepage reduction applications; 3) Exploring the viability of spray and injection module for post-construction bacterial intervention; 4) Evaluation of the long-term performance of the novel bio-shielded cement composites and validation of long-term non-pathogenicity. 5) Sustainability assessment and product engineering of industry-ready novel bio-shielded cement composites. The idea is to validate the hypothesis that the selected bacteria can deliver their functional behaviour of insect and mould repellent characteristics after embedding in cement composites. Furthermore, the project emphasises the long-term viability of the bacterial cement composites, addressing major questions on efficacy and bio-safety. For the first part, the project aims to incorporate the selected bacterial strains in cement composites and evaluate their effectiveness towards preventing seepage, moulds, and insects, for a long period of time. For the second part, the project evaluates the non-pathogenicity of the bacterial cells after being embedded in cement composites for a long period of time. The project also evaluates the developed bacterial cement composites against IS 456: 2021 and IS 9103: 1999 to ensure structural applicability. The proposed material will be a first-of-its-kind building material and demonstrate a new frontier of research on the use of bacteria for non-bio-cementation-based applications. The proposed building material is expected to reduce diseases and improve the Health and Well-being of residents, contributing significantly to SDG 3. Bacteria incorporation is also expected to improve durability, reduce cost, reduce cement consumption, and lower the carbon footprint, thus contributing to various SDGs. The research will also spark innovation towards a new class of bacterial concrete with possible applications ranging from air-purifying concrete to nutrient-harvesting materials.