A Novel Approach to Control Ice Formation with Psychrophilic Microbes
Publication: Geo-Congress 2023
ABSTRACT
This paper presents a novel, bio-treated solution to mitigate and control ice formation in frost-susceptible soils. Cold shock proteins (CSPs), which can be found in specific organisms like bacteria, fishes, insects, and plants, have the potential to lower the non-equilibrium freezing temperature of their bodily fluid. Silt, a very high frost susceptible soil, and three different strains of psychrophilic microbes, which release CSPs, were selected to test the hypothesis that the phase changes of porous media in silt can be controlled using the inherent survival mechanisms of psychrophilic microbes. Basic soil and CSP characterization tests were performed. Non-equilibrium freezing point depression and thermal hysteresis (TH) were measured for every treated and untreated soil to understand the effect of the CSPs. It was observed that a significant amount of freezing point depression had taken place with a concentrated number of psychrophilic microbes provided. Varying thermal hysteresis was also found in the samples, which also proves that the CSPs are contributing to controlling the ice crystal growth. Optical microscopic image analysis shows that the use of different psychrophilic microbes also changes the shape of ice formation. This research highlights a novel, bio-mediated approach to controlling the phase changes of porous media in frost-susceptible soils.
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Geo-Congress 2023
Pages: 411 - 421
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Published online: Mar 23, 2023
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