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The Sand 3D Printer Sand and Sunlight Produce a Sustainable Building Material

Source: IPH | Translated by AI 3 min Reading Time

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Producing building materials from desert sand by directly harnessing the sun's energy is the idea that Florian Fiedler and Tim Drewke are pursuing with their startup project, Addisol ...

Sunlight Makes Stone! These stone blocks weren't made the traditional way. Instead, they were additively manufactured from sand using a laser. In the future, however, the laser is set to be replaced by concentrated sunlight—if the startup Addisol is successful...(Image: Addisol / F. Fiedler)
Sunlight Makes Stone! These stone blocks weren't made the traditional way. Instead, they were additively manufactured from sand using a laser. In the future, however, the laser is set to be replaced by concentrated sunlight—if the startup Addisol is successful...
(Image: Addisol / F. Fiedler)

Recently, Tim Drewke and Florian Fiedler moved into an office space that includes a lab at the IPH – Institut für Integrierte Produktion Hannover (Germany) GmbH—to work, with the IPH’s support, on further developing their idea and laying the groundwork for launching their startup, as we’ve learned. The Addisol project focuses on two resources that are abundant in many regions of the world: desert sand and sunlight! Using concentrated solar energy, the sand is heated to such a high temperature that it melts and then solidifies into a hard, stone-like material. What makes this unique is that sunlight is used directly—without the detour through a photovoltaic system. Instead of first converting sunlight into electricity to power a loss-prone and energy-intensive manufacturing process, the sunlight is immediately concentrated using a Fresnel lens and directed precisely at the sand via a system of mirrors.

Additive Manufacturing Has Shown the Way

The process is based on the principle of additive manufacturing, as the two explain. Similar to laser sintering in 3D printing, the sand is melted layer by layer. This makes it possible to produce even complex geometries that would not be feasible with traditional manufacturing methods—which, as is well known, is also a major advantage of 3D printing. “For example, we could print an entire arch in one piece if we built the 3D printer large enough,” Fiedler emphasizes. Heat-insulating cavities inside the components can also be produced this way. This is already common in metal 3D printing for injection-molding tool inserts with complex cooling channels. Furthermore, many traditional mineral-based building materials (aerated concrete, sand-lime brick, or clay brick) are produced using extremely energy-intensive processes. While materials such as wood or clay are more sustainable, they are not suitable for every application and are available only in limited quantities. Fiedler therefore sought an alternative and came up with the solution described here. Fiedler is an aerospace engineer. He later trained to become an energy consultant and auditor, as the IPH notes. And Drewke is a longtime acquaintance of Fiedler’s for whom the topic of sustainability is very important.

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