Baseline Investigation on Enzyme-Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 11
Abstract
A baseline study was conducted to evaluate the influence of the composition of the enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) treatment solution on the efficiency of carbonate precipitation. EICP is an emerging biogeotechnical ground-improvement technique in which calcium carbonate is precipitated from an aqueous solution within the soil pores. A solution consisting of 1 M urea, 0.67 M calcium chloride (), and urease enzyme (reported activity ) was identified as the preferred composition of the solution for EICP treatment of soil, because that concentration of ingredients results in high precipitation mass, high precipitation efficiency, and high enzyme efficiency. It was also shown that effluent from EICP treatment may be used as a source of and urea but cannot be used as a source of urease enzyme. Adding calcite seeds facilitates densely agglomerated calcite crystal formation. Unconfined compression tests on EICP-treated specimens rinsed with deionized water to flush organic matter and ammonium chloride from the specimens suggest that there may be a threshold carbonate content above which the strength dramatically increases. The strength of EICP-treated soil is influenced not only by the amount of carbonate precipitation and but also by the method of preparation and by particle packing. Rinsing of the EICP-treated specimens with deionized water was found to cause dissolution and flushing of organic matter and ammonium chloride salt precipitates.
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Acknowledgments
The work described herein was supported by the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center program under grant number ERC-1449501 and King Saud University (KSU). The authors are grateful for this support. Any opinions or positions expressed in this article are the authors only, and do not reflect any opinions or positions of the NSF or KSU.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 11 • November 2018
Copyright
©2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 19, 2017
Accepted: May 21, 2018
Published online: Aug 30, 2018
Published in print: Nov 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jan 30, 2019
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