Upcycling Industrial Byproducts for Control of Microbially Induced Concrete Corrosion

Public lecture, Professor Mark Hernandez, PhD, PE, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder, USA

The Centre in Water Research and Development invites you to a public lecture on 27 March 2018 from 16:30 to 17:30 in Senate Lecture Hall (Solomon Mahlangu House). There will be light refreshments served from 16:00

Civil engineers have been unable to control the systemic corrosion, which is rapidly consuming subterranean utility networks. A substantial fraction of underground conduits are concrete sewers, which are responsible for safely transporting wastewater away from the buildings modern society inhabits. Over the last century, there has been trillions of dollars investment in this buried wastewater infrastructure. Much this is contained in poorly monitored pipe networks that are deteriorating at unanticipated rates because of microbially induced concrete corrosion (MICC). Urban centers worldwide share this serious and growing problem. Most rehabilitation and prevention technologies addressing concrete corrosion, apply acid-resistant materials instead of targeting the acidogenic microbes responsible for the process. In response, we have executed genetic and toxicological surveys that expose the sensitivity of MICC ecology to mixtures of nano-metallic transition elements. Formulations of novel cementitous admixtures spiked with microbial inhibitors that are released then the sewer pipe mortar is attacked by biogenic activity (sulfuric acid production), specifically designed to confer strength increases and targeted anti-microbial properties to aging and new wastewater infrastructure, will be presented.

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