Microbially induced calcite precipitation performance of multiple landfill indigenous bacteria compared to a commercially available bacteria in porous media

Abstract

Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation (MICP) is currently viewed as one of the potential prominent processes for field applications towards the prevention of soil erosion, healing cracks in bricks, and groundwater contamination. Typically, the bacteria involved in MICP manipulate their environment leading to calcite precipitation with an enzyme such as urease, causing calcite crystals to form on the surface of grains forming cementation bonds between particles that help in reducing soil permeability and increase overall compressive strength. In this paper, the main focus is to study the MICP performance of three indigenous landfill bacteria against a well-known commercially bought MICP bacteria (Bacillus megaterium) using sand columns. In order to check the viability of the method for potential field conditions, the tests were carried out at slightly less favourable environmental conditions, i.e., at temperatures between 15-17°C and without the addition of urease enzymes. Furthermore, the sand was loose without any compaction to imitate real ground conditions. The results showed that the indigenous bacteria yielded similar permeability reduction (4.79 E-05 to 5.65 E-05) and calcium carbonate formation (14.4–14.7%) to the control bacteria (Bacillus megaterium), which had permeability reduction of 4.56 E-5 and CaCO3 of 13.6%. Also, reasonably good unconfined compressive strengths (160–258 kPa) were noted for the indigenous bacteria samples (160 kPa). SEM and XRD showed the variation of biocrystals formation mainly detected as Calcite and Vaterite. Overall, all of the indigenous bacteria performed slightly better than the control bacteria in strength, permeability, and CaCO3 precipitation. In retrospect, this study provides clear evidence that the indigenous bacteria in such environments can provide similar calcite precipitation potential as well-documented bacteria from cell culture banks. Hence, the idea of MICP field application through biostimulation of indigenous bacteria rather than bioaugmentation can become a reality in the near future.

Synergistic biocementation: harnessing Comamonas and Bacillus ureolytic bacteria for enhanced sand stabilization

“…A is the sample area, (t f -t i ) is the increment of time between two readings, h 1 is the head of water above outlet elevation at time ti, and h 2 is the head above outlet elevation at time t f . (Rajasekar et al 2021a ). This procedure involved measuring the water flow rate between two designated marks in the column above the sand layer.…”

“…The carbonate content was determined by following the protocol discussed by Rajasekar et al ( 2021a ). The procedure is as follows: weigh the soil sample of 10 g (± 0.001 g) into a 250 mL Erlenmeyer flask: use a volumetric pipette; add 20 mL of standardized 1 N HCl to the flask; cover the Erlenmeyer flask with a watch glass and boil the soil-acid mixture for 5 min; and add 50–100 mL deionized water using a graduated cylinder.…”

Global Scientific Research and Trends Regarding Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation: A Bibliometric Network Analysis

“…Since then, the importance of cyanobacteria in carbonation has been extensively investigated, with particular regards to the molecular mechanisms driving calcite precipitation in Synechocystis spp and Synecococchus spp [3,5]. Over the years, Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas nitroreducens, and Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii [15][16][17] became the most studied bacteria, and have been widely used in practical applications for soil consolidation and concreate healing due to their ability to produce high amounts of calcite within a short period of time [16,[18][19][20].…”

Global scientific research in Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation: A bibliometric network analysis

“…Since then, the importance of cyanobacteria in carbonation has been extensively investigated, with particular regards to the molecular mechanisms driving calcite precipitation in Synechocystis spp and Synecococchus spp (Lamérand et al, 2022; Görgen et al, 2021). In the course of the years Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas nitroreducens and Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus megaterium, Sporosarcina pasteurii ) (Ferral-Pérez et al, 2020; Rajasekar et al, 2021, Jarwar et al 2022) became the most studied bacteria, and widely used in practical applications as soil consolidation and concreate healing, due to their ability to produce high amount of calcite within a short period of time (Bang et al 2001; Dhami et al, 2013; Wei et al, 2015; Rajasekar et al, 2021).…”