3D printing to help coral reefs

[rygh]

Interesting article.
https://abc7news.com/coral-reef-climate-change-damaged-pollution/10993177/

Anyone know more about it, or the person doing it?
Seems like they are local bay area.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Cool, although ti seems he basically just made an oyster farm by hanging it free floating in the water. Would be nice to see how it'd work by putting in a place where corals naturally exist.

 

[rygh]

Found a bit more technical write-up.
https://www.theoxygenproject.com/post/how-3d-printed-artificial-reefs-could-aid-marine-restoration/

Looks like the calcium carbonate is mixed with cement as a binder.
Something done before by hand and with molds, just not printed.
You can get fancier shapes, but otherwise not sure of the benefit vs the easy way. Maybe less percentage concrete?

I was originally thinking they were doing something fancier, like they do for biocompatible bone graft printing.

Still cool though.

 

[BAYMAC]

Found a bit more technical write-up.
https://www.theoxygenproject.com/post/how-3d-printed-artificial-reefs-could-aid-marine-restoration/

Looks like the calcium carbonate is mixed with cement as a binder.
Something done before by hand and with molds, just not printed.
You can get fancier shapes, but otherwise not sure of the benefit vs the easy way. Maybe less percentage concrete?

I was originally thinking they were doing something fancier, like they do for biocompatible bone graft printing.

Still cool though.

Initially it sounded cool, but when you look into it, it's not much different then what's been done dozens of times around the world, just with a printer. I wish him the best though!