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Bio-cement-modified construction materials and their performances

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Abstract

The microbial induced mineral precipitation can be used to modify and improve the performance of construction materials and can partially replace ordinary Portland cement. Microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) mainly uses the urease secreted during the growth of urease-producing bacteria (UPB) to hydrolyze urea produce CO32− and reacts with Ca2+ to form CaCO3. Microbially induced struvite precipitation (MISP) mainly uses the urease to decompose urea to produce NH4+. In the presence of hydrogen phosphate and magnesium ions, the struvite can be precipitated. The elemental composition and chemical composition of the precipitates produced by the MICP and MISP processes are analyzed by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and powder X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD). The morphology of the precipitates can be observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Compared with the initial porosity, the MICP method can reduce the initial porosity of the sand column by 2.98% within 90 min. However, the MISP is only 1.45%. The permeability coefficient of the sand column can be effectively reduced in the MICP process. The total content of cementitious materials is 27.71g and 13.16g in MICP- and MISP-cemented sand columns, respectively. The MICP technology can improve the strength of alkali-activated mortars under different pH values of the UPB solution.

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Data availability

The datasets and materials used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

The research described in this paper was financially supported by the Opening Funds of Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Construction Materials of Southeast University (grant no. CM2018-02) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51702238). Their financial support is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Construction Materials, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Xiaoniu Yu

  2. College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, 325035, China

    Xiaoniu Yu

  3. College of Civil Engineering, Shaoxing University, Shaoxing, 312000, China

    Zhihai He

  4. Key Laboratory of Rock Mechanics and Geohazards of Zhejiang Province, Shaoxing, 312000, China

    Zhihai He

  5. Yunnan Traffic Group Investment Co., Ltd., Kunming, 650000, China

    Xianyan Li

Authors
  1. Xiaoniu Yu
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  2. Zhihai He
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Contributions

XN performed all tests, analyzed the samples, and wrote the manuscript. ZH and XY contributed to conceive and revise the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zhihai He.

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Cite this article

Yu, X., He, Z. & Li, X. Bio-cement-modified construction materials and their performances. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 11219–11231 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16401-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16401-0

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