Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ABSTRACT: Bio-mediated soil has recently emerged as a new and sustainable soil improvement technique. This
paper presents the results of investigation on the performances of bio-mediated soil improvement on sand and a
typical tropical residual soil (sandy silt). A species of Bacillus group, B. megaterium was used to trigger calcite
precipitation. The treatments were performed at various soil densities (85%, 90% and 95% maximum density), and
treatment conditions (untreated, treated with cementation reagents only, and treated with B. megaterium and
cementation reagents). Results showed that the MICP treatment which was often attempted on sand was equally
robust in tropically residual soil. The shear strength of MICP-treated residual soil was improved by 40 - 164%
compared to its untreated counterpart. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the MICP-treated residual soil was
reduced by 54 - 74%. The effectiveness of the bio cementation and bio clogging in residual soil was mainly
governed by the particle-particle contacts, porosity and pore spaces between soil particles. Future research may
focus on in-situ applications of bio-mediated soil improvement and its effectiveness in fine-grained soils.
Keywords: bio-mediated soil improvement, microbially induced calcite precipitation, biocementation, bioclogging,
residual soil
ABSTRAK: Tanah bio - mediasi muncul sebagai teknik perbaikan tanah baru dan berkelanjutan. Makalah ini
menyajikan hasil penelitian mengenai kinerja perbaikan tanah bio - mediasi terhadap pasir dan tanah residual tropis
(sandy silt). Satu spesies dari kelompok Bacillus, B. megaterium digunakan untuk memicu produksi kalsit.
Perlakuan dilakukan pada berbagai kepadatan tanah (kepadatan maksimum 85 % , 90 % dan 95 % ), dan kondisi
perawatan ( tanpa campuran, dengan capuran reagen sementasi saja, dan dengan campuran B. megaterium dan
reagen sementasi ). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa perlakuan MICP yang sering dicoba pada pasir sama-sama
kuat di tanah tropis residual. Kekuatan geser tanah residual yang dicampur MICP meningkat 40-164 %
dibandingkan dengan tanah yang tidak dicampur . Konduktivitas hidrolik jenuh tanah residual yang dicampur MICP
berkurang sebesar 54-74 %. Efektivitas biocementation dan bioclogging di tanah residual terutama dikontrol oleh
kontak partikel - partikel, porositas dan ruang pori antara partikel tanah. Penelitian lanjutan dapat difokuskan pada
aplikasi metode perbaikan tanah bio - mediasi dan efektivitasnya dalam tanah butir halus .
Kata Kunci: perbaikan tanah dengan bio-mediasi, produksi kalsit yang dipicu oleh biomedia, biocementation,
bioclogging, tanah residual
1. INTRODUCTION
Ground improvement, in the context of geotechnical engineering, refers to enhancement of engineering
properties of soil, e.g. shear strength, hydraulic conductivity, compressibility, stiffness, etc. to
accommodate requirements of a specific construction. Common ground improvement techniques used in
current practice include mechanical compaction, dewatering, soil reinforcement and chemical grouting.
Selection of ground improvement technique lies on several factors such as soil type, thickness of soft soil
deposit, construction activities involved, and targeted soil properties to be improved. Chemical grouting is
commonly used to stabilize expansive and sensitive soil near the ground surface. Recent studies, however,
show that most of the chemical grouting are toxic and hazardous, despite of their proven effectiveness in
practice (DeJong, et al. 2010).
Bio-mediated soil improvement is a relatively new and innovative technique of ground improvement.
The technique takes advantages of natural bio-activities, technically termed as microbially induced calcite
precipitation (MICP), to produce calcite in soil matrix. The calcite generated is responsible for improving
engineering properties of soil. The MICP process has also shown promising applications in other
construction materials, i.e. improvements of strength (Siddique et al., 2008; Raijiwara et al., 2009) and
durability (De Muynck et al., 2008; Achal et al., 2011) of concrete / mortar, and durability of brick (Sarda
et al., 2009).
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First, urea (CO(NH2)2) and water (H2O) are decomposed into ammonium (NH4+) and carbonate (CO32-)
ions with the presence of urease enzyme. This process is scientifically known as urea hydrolysis. It is
important to supply urease positive type bacteria, i.e. genera Bacillus, Sporosarcina, Spoloactobacilus,
Clostridium and Desulfotomaculum (Kucharski et al., 2008) into soil to promote the production of urease
enzyme, and hence the urea hydrolysis process .
The release of ammonium (NH4+) in the Eq. [1] is essential for increasing the pH of soil as the subsequent
calcite precipitation process favors a slightly alkaline environment. The carbonate (CO32-) ions will react
with the calcium ion (Ca2+) from the supplied calcium chloride to form calcium carbonate or calcite
(CaCO3):
The calcite (CaCO3) precipitated is responsible for improving inherent engineering properties of soil
through biocementation and bioclogging. Biocementation is defined as an improvement of soil strength
by production of particle-binding materials through microbial means, while bioclogging is a reduction of
hydraulic conductivity of soil or porous rock by pore-filling materials generated by microbial processes
(Ivanov and Chu, 2008).
Bio-mediated soil improvement has been widely recognized as a 'greener' and more sustainable ground
improvement technique than the conventional chemical grouting method.
The treatment process involves relatively straight forward bio-chemical processes as depicted in Eqs.
(1) and (2). It is apparent that the MICP process requires the supply of three main ingredients / materials
only, namely urea (CO(NH2)2), calcium chloride, and urease positive bacteria. None of these materials are
toxic or hazardous to human health and soil organisms.
Current research of bio-mediated soil improvement has focused primarily on fine sands (DeJong et al,
2006). Studies on other types of soil are still very limited. This paper aims to investigate and compare the
performances of bio-mediated soil improvement on sand and a typical tropical residual soil (sandy silt).
The effectiveness of the MICP treatment was evaluated by direct measurements of shear strength and
saturated permeability of the soil specimens.
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Figure 3. Photographs of untreated (left) and MICP-treated residual soil samples (right)
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MICP-treated sand
Loose sand
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that act as filler to the voids between the large particles. The smaller pore throat in the sand specimen
plays a more dominant role in controlling the effectiveness of MICP.
The greatest reduction in hydraulic conductivity occurred in the 85% max specimen in which the
hydraulic conductivity decreased by approximately one order of magnitude from 3.5 10-3 m/s to 3.2
10-4 m/s (reduced by 91%). As the density of the specimen increased, the reductions of hydraulic
conductivity were marginally lesser as observed in 90% max
specimens (reduced by 85%).
Scanning electron microscope (SEM) imagery was performed on selected specimens to visualize calcite
precipitations in the soil specimens. Fig. 9 compares the SEM images of an untreated and a MICP-treated
residual soil specimens. The untreated specimen has a considerably clean and smooth particle surface
(Figure. 9a). For the MICP-treated specimen, abundance of calcite crystals were clearly observed. Some
of the calcite crystals were precipitated between particle-particle contacts forming a strong calcite bond
between the soil particles (Figure. 9b).
(a)
(b)
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Despite being a relatively young technology, many studies on bio-mediated soil improvement have been
reported over the past decade. In fact, the ability of MICP has been identified since early 2000, or earlier
(Bachmeier et al., 2002; Stocks-Fischer et al., 1999). DeJong et al. (2006) was among the pioneers who
attempted the MICP in geotechnical applications. Thereafter, many groups of researchers around the
world including Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, India, China, and Australia have carried
out extensive research in this field. In recent years, bio-mediated soil improvement has become one of the
hottest and fastest growing research topics among geotechnical communities.
Ivanov and Chu (2008) presented a detailed review on the applications of MICP for soil improvement.
At present, promising applications focus primarily on biocementation, bioclogging and biogas. A
comprehensive review on the state of art research of bio-mediated soil has also been reported by a group
of experts in the area (DeJong et al., 2013). These reviews are found extremely useful for new researchers
who are interested to venture into this exciting soil improvement technique.
Most studies of MICP improvement have been conducted on a laboratory scale (Dejong, et al. 2006;
Dejong, et al. 2010; Whiffin, et al. 2007). Van Paassen (2011) provided an overview of the latest research
development in Netherlands, using scale-up laboratory tests and field-scale experiments. The MICP
technique has been applied successfully in field to strengthen the wall of borehole to avoid soil collapse
during drilling process. Future researches may look into the viability of the technique in improving
bearing capacity of in-situ soil. The performance of the bio-mediated soil improvement in fine-grained
soil also warrants an insightful research to broaden the applications of this relatively new soil
improvement technique in solving real-life geotechnical problems.
5. CONCLUSIONS
A series of laboratory tests were performed to investigate and compare the effectiveness of MICP in
improving shear strength and reducing hydraulic conductivity of sand and tropical residual soil.
Following findings are drawn from the study:
i) MICP was demonstrated to enhance the shear strength and reduce the hydraulic conductivity of
both residual soil and sand specimens. The improvement in the soil engineering properties varied
with soil densities, soil types, and treatment conditions.
ii) The MICP-treated residual soils exhibited significant increments in shear strength, i.e. improved by
40-164%. The rate of improvement increased with increased density. This can be explained by high
particle-particle contacts in residual soil particles.
iii) The MICP-treated sands improved in shear strength by 14-25%. The lower improvement compared
to residual soils can be attributed to the lesser contacts between sand particles.
iv) The saturated hydraulic conductivities of the MICP-treated residual soils were reduced by 54-74%.
These reductions were less significant than those of sand specimens (85-91%). This can be
explained by the greater porosity and pore spaces in sand that are available for bioclogging.
v) Future research in bio-mediated soil may focus on its in-situ applications and effectiveness of the
technique in improving fine-grained soils.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project is funded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia under Fundamental Research Grant
Scheme (FRGS). Besides, the author would like to acknowledge the useful comments from the reviewer
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