Factors Affecting Efficiency of Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation

AbstractMicrobially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) using ureolytic bacteria shows promise in the field of geotechnical engineering for several different applications, such as ground improvement and groundwater control. This study examined optimal use and efficient control of Sporosarcina pasteurii to induce the precipitation of CaCO3 in open environments. Laboratory tests were conducted to investigate the effect of changing treatment factors, such as chemical concentrations, retention times, and effective input rates (mol/L/h) on chemical efficiency. Chemical efficiency was measured based on weight measurements of CaCO3 precipitation compared with the amount of chemical reactants injected to samples. Based on the experimental results, the optimal time required for the precipitation process to take place in porous media for a specific range of bacterial optical density was determined. Results show that, below a certain urea and CaCl2 input rate (0.042  mol/L/h) and for a bacterial optical density (...

[1]  Susumu Nakajima,et al.  A centrifugal model test of microbial carbonate precipitation as liquefaction countermeasure , 2011 .

[2]  M. Loosdrecht,et al.  Potential soil reinforcement by biological denitrification , 2010 .

[3]  Microbial carbonate precipitation in soils , 2011 .

[4]  R. S. Somani,et al.  Examination of the polymorphs and particle size of calcium carbonate precipitated using still effluent (i.e., CaCl2 + NaCl Solution) of soda ash manufacturing process , 2006 .

[5]  B. C. Martinez,et al.  Bio-Mediated Soil Improvement: Load Transfer Mechanisms at the Micro- and Macro- Scales , 2009 .

[6]  S. Bang,et al.  Microbiological precipitation of CaCO3 , 1999 .

[7]  W. Haynes,et al.  The genus Bacillus , 1973 .

[8]  Veronica Rebata-Landa.  Microbial Activity in Sediments: Effects on Soil Behavior , 2007 .

[9]  J. DeJong,et al.  Microbially Induced Cementation to Control Sand Response to Undrained Shear , 2006 .

[10]  J. Carlos Santamarina,et al.  Biological Considerations in Geotechnical Engineering , 2005 .

[11]  Victoria S. Whiffin,et al.  Microbial Carbonate Precipitation as a Soil Improvement Technique , 2007 .

[12]  C. Rodriguez-Navarro,et al.  Bacterially mediated mineralization of vaterite , 2007 .

[13]  Victoria S. Whiffin,et al.  Fixation and distribution of bacterial activity in sand to induce carbonate precipitation for ground reinforcement , 2010 .

[14]  D. Ramkrishna,et al.  Some basic aspects of reaction engineering of precipitation processes , 1995 .

[15]  I. Sondi,et al.  Influence of the primary structure of enzymes on the formation of CaCO2 polymorphs: a comparison of plant (Canavalia ensiformis) and bacterial (Bacillus pasteurii) ureases. , 2005, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[16]  Victoria S. Whiffin,et al.  Microbial CaCO3 Precipitation: For the Production of Biocement , 2008 .

[17]  B. C. Martinez,et al.  Bio-mediated soil improvement , 2010 .

[18]  L. Paassen,et al.  Biogrout, ground improvement by microbial induced carbonate precipitation , 2009 .