Permeability and setting time of bio-mediated soil under various medium concentrations

The bio-clogging using bacteria can be an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to conventional grouting methods for seepage control.However,it remains unclear to date how the dilute concentration of bacterium and medium during field installation can affect the setting time of bacterium and its correlation with permeability reduction.In this study,the setting time of bacterium and its effectiveness in permeability reduction were addressed through experimental and theoretical investigations.A series of sand column was cultivated using different concentrations of Leuconostoc mesenteroides and culture medium.The distribution and composition of the bacterial product(i.e.dextran)were observed by refractometer,scanning electron microscope(SEM),and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy(EDS).Soil permeability was recorded using a constant head test.The results revealed that bacterium was effective to produce dextran at the setting time of about 5 d after installation.This dextran can reduce the permeability of bio-mediated soil by two orders of magnitude,even without culture medium supply.In general,the dextran production decreased proportionally with increase of bacterium and medium concentration.However,at 50%bacterium and medium concentration by weight,it still has a significant influence on permeability reduction with similar setting time,compared to 100%concentration.

Spatiotemporal variations of sand hydraulic conductivity by microbial application methods

The spatiotemporal distributions of microbes in soil by different methods could affect the efficacy of the microbes to reduce the soil hydraulic conductivity.In this study,the specimens of bio-mediated sands were prepared using three different methods,i.e.injecting,mixing,and pouring a given microbial so-lution onto compacted sand specimens.The hydraulic conductivity was measured by constant-head tests,while any soil microstructural changes due to addition of the microbes were observed by scan-ning electron microscope(SEM)and mercury intrusion porosimetry(MIP)tests.The amount of dextran concentration produced by microbes in each type of specimen was quantified by a refractometer.Results show that dextran production increased exponentially after 5-7 d of microbial settling with the supply of culture medium.The injection and mixing methods resulted in a similar amount and uniform dis-tribution of dextran in the specimens.The pouring method,however,produced a nonuniform distri-bution,with a higher concentration near the specimen surface.As the supply of culture medium discontinued,the dextran content near the surface produced by the pouring method decreased dramatically due to high competition for nutrients with foreign colonies.Average dextran concentration was negatively and correlated with hydraulic conductivity of bio-mediated soils exponentially,due to the clogging of large soil pores by dextran.The hydraulic conductivity of the injection and mixing cases did not change significantly when the supply of culture medium was absent.

Department of Civil Engineering, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Bandung, 40141, Indonesiaof loose sand with fungus

This article presents an innovative method of bio-mediated soil improvement for increasing the shear strength of loose sand.The improvement is realized by mixing the loose sand with the inoculum of Rhizopus oligosporus,a kind of fungus widely used in food industry for making Indonesian tempeh.The objective of this article is to investigate the performance and mechanism of mixing tempeh inoculum as a binding agent of loose sand particles.The inoculum dosage,water content of loose sand,and curing time were examined for identifying the increment of unconfined compressive strength(q_u)of the samples.The results showed that q_u of the treated samples increased when the inoculum dosage was elevated.It shows that 5.24%inoculum could yield 68 kPa of q_u,and 5%water content and 3 d curing time produced the maximum q_u.Moreover,the mechanism of hypha and mycelium in binding the soil particles was clearly observed using a digital microscope and scanning electron microscope.

Biomediated Precipitation of Calcium Carbonate in a Slightly Acidic Hot Spring,Yunnan Province

A slightly acidic hot spring named ＂Female Tower＂（t=73.5°C, pH=6.64） is located in the Jifei Geothermal Field, Yunnan Province, southwestern China. The precipitates in the hot spring are composed of large amounts of calcite, aragonite and sulfur. Scanning electron microscopy（SEM） analyses reveal that the microbial mats were formed from various coccoid or rod-shaped filamentous microbes. Transmission electron microscopy（TEM） shows that the intracellular sulfur granules are commonly associated with these microbes. A culture-independent molecular phylogenetic analysis demonstrates that the majority of the bacteria in the spring are sulfur-oxidizing bacteria. In the spring water, H2S concentration is up to 60 ppm, while SO4-（2-） concentration is only about 10 ppm. We speculate that H2S might derive from sulfur-oxidizing bacteria in this hot spring water, leading to the intracellular formation of sulfur granules. Meanwhile, this reaction increased the p H in the micronscale microdomains, which fosters the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the microbial mats. The results of this study indicate that the sulfur-oxidizing bacteria might play an important role in calcium carbonate precipitation in slightly acidic hot spring environments.

Biological process of soil improvement in civil engineering:A review

The concept of using biological process in soil improvement which is known as bio-mediated soil improvement technique has shown greater potential in geotechnical engineering applications in terms of performance and environmental sustainability. This paper presents a review on the soil microorganisms responsible for this process, and factors that affect their metabolic activities and geometric compatibility with the soil particle sizes. Two mechanisms of biomineralization, i.e. biologically controlled and biologically induced mineralization, were also discussed. Environmental and other factors that may be encountered in situ during microbially induced calcite precipitation （MICP） and their influences on the process were identified and presented. Improvements in the engineering properties of soil such as strength/stiffness and permeability as evaluated in some studies were explored. Potential applications of the process in geotechnical engineering and the challenges of field application of the process were identified.