| Some of the earliest houses in Northern Europe were made from peatboard because it is a cheap and rich building material. Now, Estonian scientists are re-examining the idea of peat houses, but this time they are studying the use of 3D printing technology. Estonia There are many peat resources, which are found in large quantities in wetlands and cover about 22% of the landscape. In addition, Estonia has a lot of oil shale ash - the country estimates an annual production of 7.7 million tons of waste, of which only 5% are reused.  To this end, researchers at the University of Tartu and the University of Life Sciences in Estonia have created a 3D printed concrete-based material, mainly made of milled peat, while oil shale ash is used as a binder. In addition, they will Silica nanoparticles are added to the mixture. The resulting material hardens within one day of printing - meaning that the materials can be stacked tightly together without any gaps between them that allow wind to pass through. It is also considered to be strong, lightweight, durable and non-flammable, And it has low thermal conductivity. In addition, this material is very cheap. It is estimated that the cost of building a housing shell is about one-tenth the cost of building a traditional frame housing of the same size. Scientists recently published a paper on the study in the journal Sustainable Materials and Technology. |
