Seasteading Part 2

A house boat similar to this but with a shallow rooftop garden and solar panels would provide a very livable structure for a mobile, adventurous lifestyle.

You’ve got to love the Internet. You can find just about anything with enough time and effort. I wrote about my seasteading idea the other day. This got me wondering about the best places to seastead. A quick search turned up world maps of Tracks and Intensity of All Tropical Storms and Wave Heights at Seasteading.org. This is a great site. They seem to have all the answers on seasteading.

A quick search for house boats located the photo above on Wiki. A locally made boat like this might be quite reasonable in cost.

Be sure to take a look at The World of Ferro-cement Boats. Their website says “Ferro-cement boats built before 1855 are still in existence and at least one is still afloat. It is the cheapest and easiest form of construction for boats over 25 ft.” They have lots of information that will likely prove invaluable – building directions, galleries, a forum, and plans and boats for sale.

Floating Dirt Seastead is another good site with lots of interesting ideas for do-it-yourself seasteaders on a tight budget.

California Concrete Canoe, a contest for engineering students, is another good resource.

How many reasons do you need to live or vacation in a tropical paradise like Tahiti?

Image source: About.com

Seasteading with Floatable Concrete Houses

I’m currently researching the feasibility of building floating structures made of geopolymer. Most of the designs/plans I’ve read about so far are for expensive floating cities and luxury rentals. I’m still looking for a practical DIY model for the average guy. One possibility is building a raft that can be towed with a boat. The raft would provide food production (floating garden), potable water storage and additional living space at fairly low cost.

This seasteading concept is just an interesting idea at this time, but it’s worth contemplating because there are lots of benefits. Here are a few structural considerations:
– Build the raft in a safe area with very low risk of piracy, hurricanes, storms and tsunamis. You will need to collect rainwater and/or have access to fresh water.
– Design possibility #1: build modular, geopolymer or foamed geopolymer blocks that are joined together to create the desired size. Hollow core ferrocement blocks could be cast in a reusable form. The core could be filled with sealed, recycled plastic bottles or foam.
– Design possibility #2: use recycled barrels to make something similar to design #1 by casting foamed geopolymer around the barrel. Fill the barrel with recycled plastic bottles or foam. Attach strips of rubber tires between barrels where they contact each other and the deck. Add more ferrocement barrels at any time to expand the size. Build a deck on top with local wood or possibly plastic lumber. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_lumber
– Design possibility #3: Retrofit a houseboat with a rooftop garden.

Why choose seasteading? The links below go into all the details. Here are a few benefits described at Seasteading – Homesteading the High Seas.
“Why would anyone want to colonize the ocean surface? There are a number of reasons — adventure, religious freedom, tax avoidance, trying out new forms of government, etc. Of the ones listed, tax avoidance is my pick as the most powerful motivator for the development of sea surface colonization technology.”

Floating Concrete Shell Structures
Seasteading Institute
Seasteading Forum

Geopolymer Concrete – Open Architecture Network

Geopolymer concrete block made with waste coal fly ash.

Project Type:
urban planning design strategy, architecture

Project Mission/Goal:
increase awareness of the environment and/or address climate change

Project Description:
The coal combustion process produces one of the largest unregulated solid wastes in the United States. Although in recent years a growing percentage of the airborne particulates (‘fly ash’) found uses as a filler in the cement industry, recent changes in EPA regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses (GHG) emissions has resulted in most of the 70 million tons of fly ash produced annually in the US becoming unusable for current construction processes due to high levels of unburned carbon, ammonia and/or other impurities. Furthermore, the significant costs associated with transporting and land filling solids derived from coal combustion could be further increased due to liabilities associated with the eventual leaching of harmful levels of aluminum, chloride, iron, manganese and toxic levels of arsenic, nickel, lead, copper and zinc into subterranean water tables. Thus, the development of innovative technologies for converting tens of million tons of combustion bi-products annually into useful products is an urgent need.

What is Geopolymer:
-A hardened cementitious paste made from fly ash without Portland cement. It has greater compressive and tensile strengths, high strength gain rate, lower porosity and permeability, and greatly enhanced resistance to chemical attack compared with ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete. It combines waste products into a useful product, conserving landfill space and promoting sustainability, and compared with Portland cement, it features a 90% or greater reduction in carbon dioxide emission.
-A solution of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide (waste products from the chemical and petrochemical industries) must be prepared separately, then added to the liquid commercial sodium silicate; this solution may then be added to the powdered fly ash (waste product from coal and bio fuel combustion) in the same way as water is added for Portland cement.

Source: Open Architecture Network

Geopolymer Compression Tests

“The Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) is performing a high level analysis of the local market potential for geopolymer cements. The analysis includes an assessment of available local materials, potential of local product manufacturing, and potential economic feasibility. This is a sister project to the Magnesium Phosphate Cement Testing and Application project funded by Alaska Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC).

CCHRC is developing geopolymer cement formulas that use local raw materials and analyzing the market potential for the product in Alaska.

Geopolymer cements use waste materials as a binder and are stronger and more sustainable than conventional Portland cements. CCHRC has studied more than 600 recipes of geopolymers made with use fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion, from local power plants. Researchers are working to develop a product that is strong, cost-competitive and cures at the right time and temperature to be used commercially. Geopolymers are already commercially available elsewhere in the world.

Creating cement requires water, an alumina silicate material, and an alkali activator such as sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate. Nearly any product made with concrete can be made with geopolymer cements. The applications are endless for buildings, transportation, and many other areas.”

Source: Cold Climate Housing Research Center

Study of Sticky Rice−Lime Mortar Technology for the Restoration of Historical Masonry Construction

Replacing or repairing masonry mortar is usually necessary in the restoration of historical constructions, but the selection of a proper mortar is often problematic. An inappropriate choice can lead to failure of the restoration work, and perhaps even further damage. Thus, a thorough understanding of the original mortar technology and the fabrication of appropriate replacement materials are important research goals.

A systematic study of sticky rice−lime mortar technology was conducted to help determine the proper courses of action in restoring ancient buildings. Lime mortars with varying sticky rice content were prepared and tested. The physical properties, mechanical strength, and compatibility of lime mortar were found to be significantly improved by the introduction of sticky rice, suggesting that sticky rice−lime mortar is a suitable material for repairing mortar in ancient masonry. Moreover, the amylopectin in the lime mortar was found to act as an inhibitor; the growth of the calcium carbonate crystals is controlled by its presence, and a compact structure results, which may explain the enhanced performance of this organic−inorganic composite compared to single-component lime mortar.

Source: ACS Publications
Related: Ancient Bricks of Sand, Glutinous Rice and Rice Hulls

Geopolymer Mixture Work in 3D Printing?

Pumping Fly-ash Concrete into Basement ICF Walls

Bricks Made at Low Temperature, Low Energy, Low Cost

Geopolymer Formation and Its Unique Properties

Abstract
The characteristic property of naturally-occurring geopolymers is a high content of humic materials that are recognized by the nitrogen function. Through a simulated geopolymerization, biopolymers with non-nitrogen function, such as xanthan gum, were found to have the characteristics of humic acid by means of UV–Vis spectrometry. This fact ascertains that any kind of biopolymer may naturally transform to a geopolymer. A geopolymer is a type of crosslinked long-chain compound, built in three-dimensional structures whose property is immune to microbial degradation. A crosslinked biopolymer was shown to have the same characterization as a geopolymer that has a long life due to its crosslinking capacity and antimicrobial properties. In this study, the formation of petroleum-based geopolymers (e.g., kerogen) was introduced. This study may elucidate the structure of geomacromolecules and the mechanism of their formation, closely related with crosslink reaction between inorganic and organic molecules. This will further change the conventional definition of geopolymer that involves only the inorganic geopolymer.

Source: SpringLink.com

Argentine Makes Bricks of Ashes from Chilean Volcano

After weeks of enduring the ash brought on by Chile’s Puyehue volcano, one Argentine woman has decided to transform the grey sediment into something useful. Maria Irma Mansilla used the sediment and sand spewed by the volcano to create bricks. She hopes she and her neighbours will be able to produce them on a large scale to build homes for the poor. Eric Camara reports. (Click on link below to see video.)

Source: BBC News
[Lots of people are using fly ash for making geopolymer. Using volcanic ash is less common. That’s what the Romans used to great success.]