21^th of April 2015 – TU Delft

Researcher Henk Jonkers from the Delft university of Technology and his self-helaing concrete have been nominated for the European Inventor Award, an initiative of the European Patent Office.

Bacteria

Building with concrete which can repair itself? It seems like a utopia, but if it comes to microbiologist and inventor Henk Jonkers of Delft University of Technology, this will soon be reality. The Dutch researcher developed the bio-concrete of the future, inspired by nature: concrete with bacteria.

Jonkers: ‘The beauty of this limestone-producing bacteria is that they can survive over 200 years in concrete and that they take action themselves if damage occurs. For example, if cracks are caused by pressure on the concrete, they will be self-sealed.’

The invention has numerous applications and is currently translated into three products that will appear on the market this year: self-healing concrete, repair mortar and a liquid repair system.

Nomination
Henk Jonkers and his bio-concrete of the future are now nominated for the European Inventor Award, an initiative of the European Patent Office (EPO) (including video below). This year, the tenth edition of the presentation of this inventor price is organized in Paris. President Benoît Battistelli (EPO) on the nomination of Jonkers: ‘This innovation is clearly focused on the future. The bacterial concrete prolongs the lifetime of bridges, roads and tunnels and gives a whole new perspective to the concrete production.”