Natural granite is solidified volcanic lava, a mix of minerals - quartz, feldspar and mica crystals. Specialists from the Scientific-Industrial Association Extrastep can produce artificial granite of nearly the same initial materials. Their technology relies on developments of the High Temperatures Institute under the Russian Academy of Sciences made in creating heat insulation for spaceships.
At first, sand, dolomite powder, feldspar and other components are smelted in usual glass furnaces. The melt goes to form pellets. Mixed with additional ingredients, catalysts, crystallizers plus sand, a crystalline mass resembling natural granite is produced to be remelted. This technology makes do without super-high temperatures and increased pressure.
The material produced looks like natural granite but has altogether different properties. First, it is more resistant to heat and aggressive chemicals. Second, its porosity can be adjusted: denser on the outside and not so dense and coarse on the inside. It does need a polish since it is smooth from the very beginning. The coarse large-pore inside is bound with the concrete base by cement-sand grout. The super-granite features another unique property: its coefficient of temperature expansion is actually the same as of concrete. A difference of temperatures cannot crack or make friable a lining of man-made granite.
