| In a meeting held on August 1, the Coir+ Project Team, led by Prof. Magdaleno Vasquez, Jr., presented the final results of collaborative research on the use of a plasma-based process to utilize coconut fiber or coir in reinforced concrete. The team developed a lab-scale set-up for treating coir and established the parameters needed to make it suitable as a concrete additive. Tests conducted with industry collaborators showed that coir-reinforced concrete exhibited superior properties over plain concrete. Talks have started for a second phase of the project which is to scale up the process. The collaborating institutions are the Plasma-Material Interactions Laboratory (DMMME, COE, UPD), Vista Land and Landscapes, Inc., Axonas Innovations Inc., MGS Ready Mix, UPSCALE, and UPERDFI. This project is a testament that academe and industry can be brought together to develop engineering solutions to real-world problems. |
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