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The technology developed by microbiologist Henk Jonkers at Delft University of Technology mixes spores of Bacillus pseudofirmus and cohnii into the concrete itself to autonomously seal cracks, and is already being used in bridge, tunnel, and retaining wall projects in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Brazil still does not have any beams made with bacteria self-healing concrete, the technology that the Dutch company Green Basilisk, a spin-off from Delft University of Technology, has been selling for almost a decade and which today autonomously repairs bridges, tunnels, and retaining walls in projects in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
The formula came out of the laboratory of microbiologist Henk Jonkers at TU Delft in the late 2000s. Jonkers spent years searching for a bacterium that could survive inside concrete, an alkaline and dry environment that kills almost everything.
He found two: Bacillus pseudofirmus and Bacillus cohnii. Both withstand high pH and can remain dormant for decades in spore form, encased in calcium lactate capsules mixed into the fresh concrete itself.
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In spore form, these microorganisms withstand heavy compression, heat, lack of water, and even ice. They remained dormant for hundreds of thousands of years in natural rocks before being cataloged, and Jonkers bet they would remain dormant inside cement if undisturbed.
When the structure develops a crack and rainwater starts to seep in, the bacteria awaken. They metabolize the lactate, produce limestone, and seal the gap from within, in a process similar to wound healing.
It’s concrete that heals its own wounds.
Their lifespan inside the concrete, according to Delft University of Technology, can reach 200 years. The more moisture infiltrates, the more bacteria awaken, and the more limestone appears, in a cycle that repeats as long as lactate is available.
The extra cost of this bacterial cement is not significant. A cubic meter of conventional concrete costs about 80 euros in Europe. The same amount with Green Basilisk’s technology costs between 85 and 100 euros, an increase of 5 to 20 euros per cubic meter.
This is the price of prevention. Canadian consultancy Giatec Scientific estimates that bridges, tunnels, and retaining walls within the European Union generate an annual maintenance bill of between 4 and 6 billion euros.
TU Delft says that new projects designed with bioconcrete require 30% to 40% less reinforced concrete. Less steel, less cement, less volume, and consequently a smaller carbon footprint in construction.
Basilisk currently offers two lines, ready-mixed concrete with bacteria for new projects and bacterial repair mortar for existing structures that have cracked. The company signed a contract with Conmix for distribution in the United Arab Emirates in 2022 and has been expanding its European portfolio since then.
In Brazil, healing is only chemical
Here, the story stopped at the previous frontier. The person pursuing self-healing concrete in the country is Emilio Minoru Takagi, a civil engineer and researcher at the Materials Department of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) in São José dos Campos.
Takagi’s group works with crystalline additives, chemical agents that react with water entering the crack and form crystals that seal the gap. It works, but it tackles small cracks and has limited reach over time. Commercial bacteria, however, are still a horizon.
ITA’s chemical technology has already reached Brazilian projects. The bottom slabs of three stations on the Line 4 of the Rio de Janeiro Metro, Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz, Jardim de Alah, and Antero de Quental, received self-healing concrete with crystalline additive before opening in 2016.
It was a technically challenging operation. The slabs are below sea level at several of these stations, and any open crack in the concrete would bring saltwater infiltration into the tunnel. The crystalline additive was what fit the Brazilian state of the art at the time.
Studies by the Brazilian Association of Structural Engineering and Consultancy, ABECE, indicate that this chemical route increases the structure’s durability by up to 47% and reduces accelerated carbonation depth by 2 millimeters. A good result for corrosion, but far from what the bacterial version delivers in Europe.
Dissertations from UFRGS and the Federal University of Amazonas and the 1st Brazilian Symposium on Concrete Self-Healing show that the topic has entered the national academic radar, even though no commercial strain like Basilisk is involved. Takagi himself acknowledges that the country is just starting studies with bacteria, without a defined pilot project.
I imagine what a bioconcrete slab would save in maintenance on a project like the Rio-Niterói Bridge, which has faced saltwater corrosion since the 1970s. Or on São Paulo viaducts that crack every dry winter. While Italy finally went ahead with the Messina Strait Bridge after decades of debate, the Brazilian calculation has not yet been made.
The difference between us and the Netherlands is not in science. It’s in adoption. There, TU Delft turned research into a spin-off, Green Basilisk received a venture capital round, Conmix took the brand to the Middle East. Here, even projects unblocked after five years like Ferrogrão reach the end of 2026 still discussing licensing, and the story of bioconcrete remains stuck in master’s dissertations and symposium reports.
There’s a lack of people willing to buy the first batch. There’s a lack of the first beam cast with Bacillus on this side of the Atlantic.
Would you be willing to see a bacterial bioconcrete beam being tested on a Brazilian bridge or metro station before the end of 2026?
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