Summary Reader Response #1

In the article “The Self-Healing Concrete…” Spinks (2015) stated that Hendrik Jonkers, a microbiologist at Delft University, has innovated self-healing concrete and discussed whether the industry is keen on picking up the technology. This technology works by embedding 'self-activating limestone-producing bacteria into building material', thus lowering maintenance and repair costs for buildings. However, Spinks mentions that the innovation cannot cure 'wide cracks or potholes on roads' as the technology is only limited for cracks up to 0.8mm wide. A cubic-meter of it also costs €100 as opposed to the standard €70. These disadvantages would be reason enough for the industry to shun the use of such technology. According to Spinks, John Alker, director of policy at the UK Green Building Council, believes that flaunting the benefits of new green technology would make its adoption successful, albeit acknowledging the stubbornness of the construction industry in adopting new ideas. Spinks said that Jonkers acknowledges this problem, and after doing a concrete-canal project in Ecuador, he was optimistic that the industry will come to see the benefit of his innovation. Based on the points made in the article, it constantly mentions the high price of the self-healing concrete. However, it fails to elucidate that the high price of the self-healing concrete is due to the technology being in its infancy and the lack of adoption and mass production of the product itself.

Even though it is a very promising development, the technology for self-healing concrete is still in its relative infancy, and it has a lot of work to do before it becomes a viable and reasonable economical choice for construction companies "Self-healing concrete..." (2019). Due to there being limited research on the technology, it costs significantly lesser to produce normal concrete compared to its self-healing variant. Bacteria, agents and materials needed to concoct the self-healing concrete would cost higher as these items are not easily found on the market. As the technology is still relatively new, it can only cure cracks up to 0.8mm wide. This gives self-healing concrete limited usage, which only serves to further drive up its production costs. Due to this, the technology has not garnered widespread adoption, which brings us to our next point.

The severe lack of adoption (Shannon, 2015) and lack of mass production (Damian, 2011) of the product is one of the causes of the high prices of self-healing concrete, which the article did not elaborate on. The technology is a long shot from becoming a sustainable alternative to concrete as of now. However, as the technology advances, this will see an increase in adoption of the product "Self-healing concrete..."(2019). As the technology evolves, it can be introduced to more complex structures, thus stimulating construction companies to further adopt this technology. If this happens, we would see self-healing concrete being produced on an industrial scale, which would drastically bring down the cost of self-healing concrete (Damian, 2011).

From the reasons and explanations stated, the price of self-healing concrete is high not due to its intrinsic values, but due to reasons stated above. I feel that the article failed to mention these points, and thus gave a negative light to self-healing concrete due to its high cost. Self-healing concrete would be a sustainable and viable replacement for concrete in the future, and I felt that the article unnecessarily amplified the issue of cost in adopting the technology.

References

Arnold, D. (2011, March). Articles - self-healing concrete. Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://www.ingenia.org.uk/Ingenia/Articles/eb2f64de-2493-4dfc-9adc-3ae8e13ca477

Moneo, S. (2017, November 02). Dutch scientist Invents self-healing concrete with bacteria - constructconnect.com. Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://canada.constructconnect.com/joc/news/infrastructure/2015/09/dutch-scientist-invents-self-healing-concrete-with-bacteria-1010047w

Self-healing concrete – the friendly bacteria that fixes cracks. (2019, January 23). Retrieved February 15, 2021, from http://useofcement.cembureau.eu/2019/01/23/self-healing-concrete-friendly-bacteria-fixes-cracks/

Spinks, R. (2015, June 29). Sustainable business. Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/jun/29/the-self-%20healing-concrete-that-can-fix-its-own-cracks