By Olanike Orebe
A young Nigerian, Sodiq Babatunde Yusuf, has recorded a significant and outstanding breakthrough in his doctoral programme as a Ph.D candidate in Natural Resources and Conservation in the Department of Forestry, Rangeland, and Fire Sciences at the University of Idaho, Idaho, USA. Yusuf joined a promising team of researchers on an interdisciplinary project called Printimber, an initiative of U& l team of the University to create a framework to use waste materials in building design to make houses affordable and sustainable.
The team is seeking alternative construction of buildings using sawdust and other natural resources and combining these with 3D digital printing to construct buildings in a more cost-effective and naturally beneficial way.
In a chat with newsmen, Mr. Yusuf said he has made tremendous breakthrough in three distinct areas, of printing, testing the viability of sawdust as more reliable material and also using naturally sourced resources to provide resin as glue for sticking together wood materials being used for the project.
Speaking about his academic background which prepared him for a fully funded doctoral programme in the U.S University, he said: “After my bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the federal university of agriculture Abeokuta , Nigeria doing which I did my undergrad thesis on the use of powdered groundnut husk to purify wastewater, I developed interest in the use of waste to provide sustainable solutions. I’m excited at the possibility of using waste to solve problems rather than seeing it as the problem.
“This motivation led me to pursue my Ph.D in Natural resources under the supervision of Professor Armando McDonald, a distinguished professor of forest and sustainable products in his renewable materials laboratory.
I work with Professor Armando McDonald on the printimber project, with a goal to use renewable waste materials for construction of houses by 3D printing. This will make housing more affordable, reduce waste and pressure on our forests due to increasing housing demand”.
Mr. Yusuf spoke about his key accomplishments on the project, saying:
“I have developed sustainable materials such as carbon fiber from waste hemp and demonstrate its use in additive manufacturing applications, I have demonstrated the use of biochar to reduce cost, improve extrudability and biodegradability of wood-sodium silicate composites for additive manufacturing applications; I have also demonstrated the valorization of hemp hurds, an industrial waste in 3D printing of houses; My PhD candidacy topic involves working on the use of pyrolysis to upscale waste materials and convert them to valuable materials such as fuel and sustainable materials for additive manufacturing applications. Most wastes are burnt generating green house gases to the environment, I’m proposing pyrolysis to convert these wastes to sustainable materials while using them also as fuel to make a self sustaining system producing sustainable materials. This technology can be applied by underrepresented rural people to control their wastes and develop their economy at the same time.”
Yusuf who is a member of several professional bodies such as American chemical society, Association of Energy engineers, National society of leadership and success, Xi sigma Pi (The forestry honors society in the US) and International biochar initiative among others, added that :” The goal of my project is to create a framework to use bio based waste materials in 3D printing of houses. This will reduce cost of labor and injuries as well as address reducing the pressure on forest trees. Only 40% mass of a tree is converted to logs of wood used in construction, the use of bio based wastes in construction will reduce waste while reducing the cost of buildings.
As a chemist, my role on the project is to experiment different binder formulations and extrude them as well as investigate properties” he said.