Materials

Biochar based building material offers the possibility of carbon negative construction in addition to a slew of other unique and promising properties. The first building using this material was built in 2013 at the Ithaka Institute in Switzerland and is currently undergoing extensive performance testing.  Already though, the building has proven to be highly insulated with great humidity control. Substantial opportunities also exist to use the char-clay material to upgrade existing buildings plagued with poor insulation, humidity problems or contaminations such as lead paint.

NanoC is a biochar-derived nano-carbon additive developed by the institute for integration into high-performance fibre composites. Injected into glass-fibre and carbon-fibre matrices, NanoC reduces vibration, increases acceleration out of turns, and improves structural responsiveness.