Electrical Conductivity of Microbially Treated Geomaterials and Industrial Wastes
Publication: Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 21, Issue 4
Abstract
Electrical conductivity measurement of geomaterials is often used as a tool for performance appraisal of liner materials, including monitoring of solute transport, and necessarily constitutes a vital aspect in the design of barrier systems. Variations of thermal conductivity of certain geomaterials along with industrial wastes for engineered barrier applications, as in the case of a deep geological repository (DGR), have been observed to vary with addition of a radiation-resistant microbial species. As there is an interdependence between thermal and electrical conductivity of geomaterials, in the present study, experimental investigations pertaining to microbial influence on electrical conductivities of several geomaterials and industrial-waste samples meant for barrier and buffer applications are reported. Electrical conductivity measurements of the samples were carried out with the help of a fabricated electrical conductivity probe with a microcontroller unit. It is observed that Deinococcus radiodurans, the extremophilic and radiation-resistant bacterial species, has an incremental effect on the short-term electrical conductivity of the samples under consideration, which may be reasoned to any possible form of biogeochemical reaction leading to salt precipitation and subsequent alteration of salinity, or phasal augmentation in the liquid phase in the samples. Moreover, to appreciate the potential of living matter in soil to alter the engineering properties of the soil, a novel theoretical approach is also suggested to incorporate the presence of living phase in the idealized model of soil mass. Furthermore, based on the experimental data, prediction models are developed using artificial intelligence techniques and multigene genetic programming to quantify microbial influence on electrical conductivity of the samples. The models were found to be efficient in terms of statistical parameters.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to extend their gratitude to Dr. R. Jayabalan and Ms. Indira Dash, Department of Life Sciences, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India, for their help in handling the bacterial culture and allowing use of the food and bioprocess technology laboratory facilities.
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Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 21 • Issue 4 • October 2017
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©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Jun 25, 2016
Accepted: Dec 1, 2016
Published online: Apr 10, 2017
Discussion open until: Sep 10, 2017
Published in print: Oct 1, 2017
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