Please share your perspectives and experiences on the use of bacteria in concrete.
Is it really an excellent tool for improving the properties of mortar and concrete? Is it cost effective? What you think ? What type of improvement does this technology (bacterial concrete) need? What types of parameters need to be investigated? Is this technology good for reinforced concrete also?
According to this article,
http://phys.org/news/2010-11-bacillafilla-concrete.html
bacteria could provide
- calcium carbonate crystals
- reinforcing fibers
- glue
for self-healing concrete.
More:
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-cultivating-concrete-cancer.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19386-for-selfhealing-concrete-just-add-bacteria-and-food.html
http://phys.org/news/2013-05-micro-capsules-bacteria-self-healing-concrete.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/acs-asp022013.php
Regards,
Joachim
Bacterial embedded concrete has been around for some times now but am sure it can still be improved some how. I participated in a team work some times ago and we used bacillus substilis as our bacterial. It has the ability to excrete a form of cementitious material which help to heal the concrete when it crack hence it is called self healing concrete. Cost effectiveness of this idea is yet to be determined as it has not been done on a large scale and Its safety level is also unknown since caution can be applied when producing it in the laboratory but such level of caution can be very difficult to maintain on site (construction and application).
You can check this publication and the references cited.
http://www.hrpub.org/download/20131107/CEA2-14801165.pdf
Thanks
induced carbonate calcite precipitation by bacteria can improves permeability properties of mortar or concrete.and according to the papers that published, it can improves durability of concrete that is strongly related to permeability properties.and the other hand it can be useful for reinforced concrete to prevent corrsion of reinforcements inside the concrete.
Bacteria isolated mainly bacilli microbes have a positive co relation to reduce micro cracks. Our Civil Engineering students are working on this at very preliminary stage.
bacillus subitus is one of the bacteria selected
The characyeristics of this bacteria and EPS (exopolysaccharised ) secretes have binding properties.
more in my next answer
microbiologically induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICCP) resulting from
metabolic activities of some specific microorganisms in concrete to improve the overall behavior of concrete. Aerobic microorganism ( Bacillus pasteurii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ) showed a significant improvement (about 18%) in compres sive strength of cement mortar [ Ramakrishnan et al 1998. As part of metabolism, some bacterial species produce urease, which catalyzes urea to
produce CO2 and ammonia, resulting in an increase of pH in the surroundings where ions Ca2+ and CO 3 2- precipitate as CaCO3. Possible biochemical reactions in medium to precipitate CaCO3 at the cell surface that provides a nucleation site can be summarized as follows.
Ca2+ + Cell → Cell - Ca2+
Cl - + HCO3 - + NH3 → NH4Cl + CO3 2-
Cell-Ca2+ + CO3 2-→ Cell-CaCO3↓
http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-2229-3_24
http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28ASCE%29MT.1943-5533.0000159
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