ETH civil engineers and architects have developed a new building component that can be used to dehumidify rooms. The building component is used in walls and ceilings to bind and temporarily store moisture. It is produced sustainably using 3D printing from re-used materials and can replace mechanical ventilation systems.
The civil engineers, led by Professor Guillaume Habert, created the moisture-binding material by combining finely ground waste from marble quarries with a geopolymer binder. “Our solution is suitable for high-traffic spaces for which the ventilation systems already in place are insufficient,” says Guillaume Habert, Professor for Sustainable Construction at ETH Zurich.
The hygroscopic wall and ceiling components are climate-friendly, causing significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions over a 30-year life cycle than a ventilation system that dehumidifies air quality to the same extent.
The researchers succeeded in producing a prototype of a wall and ceiling component measuring 20 ร 20 cm and 4 cm thick. Production was carried out using 3D printing in a group led by Professor Benjamin Dillenburger.
