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Biocementation of calcareous sand using soluble calcium derived from calcareous sand

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Abstract

A soil improvement method based on a microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) process has been developed in recent years. In this method, calcium carbonate is precipitated in-situ to act as a cementing agency. Calcium chloride is normally used as the calcium source for the MICP process. The use of calcium chloride causes two problems. The first is chloride is corrosive to concrete, and the second is the cost of calcium chloride is relatively high. An improvement to this method is to use other alternative calcium sources. A method to produce soluble calcium using calcium rich calcareous sand and use it as a calcium source for the MICP process to improve the properties of soil has been proposed in this paper. A comparative study between the effect of MICP treatment using soluble calcium produced from calcareous sand and that using calcium chloride with the same concentration of calcium was carried out. The results from both series of tests showed that with increasing amounts of cementation solutions, the strength and stiffness of the treated calcareous sand increased and the permeability decreased. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction analyses revealed that the aragonite crystals with an acicular mineral morphology were formed when the soluble calcium was used, whereas the calcite crystals with a rhombohedral mineral morphology were formed when calcium chloride was used. This study also shows that it is feasible to treat calcareous sand using a MICP method with soluble calcium produced from calcareous sand.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge that this study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51578096), the Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B13024) and the Research Innovation Program for College Graduates of Jiangsu Province (KYZZ16_0269).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Lu Liu & Hanlong Liu

  2. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Lu Liu & Hanlong Liu

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China

    Hanlong Liu, Yang Xiao, Peng Xiao & Yang Wang

  4. Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Area, Chongqing University, Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Yang Xiao

  5. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore

    Jian Chu

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  1. Lu Liu
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  2. Hanlong Liu
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  3. Yang Xiao
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  4. Jian Chu
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  5. Peng Xiao
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  6. Yang Wang
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Correspondence to Hanlong Liu.

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Liu, L., Liu, H., Xiao, Y. et al. Biocementation of calcareous sand using soluble calcium derived from calcareous sand. Bull Eng Geol Environ 77, 1781–1791 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1106-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-017-1106-4

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