Bacteria-Induced Calcite Precipitation for Engineering and Environmental Applications

Abstract

Numerous engineering and environmental issues can be resolved using the bacterial-induced calcite precipitation (BCP), which has the potential to be environmentally friendly, sustainable, and economical. In BCP, bacterial enzymes used substrates and divalent cations to bind negatively charged ions to the bacterial surface and produce biocementation. Various metabolic pathways involved in the calcite precipitation and ureolysis are the principal bacterial pathways that have been illustrated by most bacteria including Sporosarcina pasteurii, Bacillus subtilis, and Pseudomonas putida. Ammonia is produced by these bacteria, which is toxic and should be eliminated. Therefore, BCP via carbonic anhydrase could be a preferred option because the end-products are not toxic. The growing global requirement of ground improvement boosted the demand for biostabilization because of its numerous benefits, including environmental issues. Dust suppression, remediated soil contaminants, polychlorinated biphenyl calcium ions, and CO2 sequestration, proving that BCP is environmentally friendly and sustainable. Furthermore, for fine-grained soils having pores smaller than 0.5 μm, the enzyme-induced calcite that uses enzymes instead of bacteria is more suitable to stabilize the soil by precipitating the calcite. The use of BCP as binders for soil stability and strengthening, innovative construction materials, subsurface barriers, and impermeable crusts is an emerging field. Calcite precipitated in the pores increases strength more than 20 times, resulting in a significant reduction in compressibility. Similarly, reduced soil permeability to up to 99% broadens its applicability. This review argues that BCP can be induced by multiple approaches, including urease expressing bacteria and carbonic anhydrase expressing bacteria as well as free enzymes.

Carbonate precipitation and phosphate trapping by microbialite isolates from an alkaline insular lake (Bagno dell'Acqua, Pantelleria Island, Italy)

“…Although earlier studies have suggested that cultures containing the bacterial strain Virgibacillus sp can prompt the precipitation of an ammonium analog of hazenite, specifically (NH4)NaMg 2 (PO4) 2 •14H 2 O (Yang et al, 2014), for as much as we know, this is the first report of hazenite synthesis with K and Na, mediated by heterotrophic bacteria under controlled laboratory conditions. The isolated strains showed high activity for calcium carbonate and phosphate precipitation and represent promising candidates for ecofriendly industrial applications (Zhang et al, 2022;Baidya et al, 2023). Like struvite and K-struvite, hazenite could also be a potential phosphorus source for long-term release for fertilizer use (Watson et al, 2020;Raniro et al, 2022).…”

“…The isolated strains showed high activity for calcium carbonate and phosphate precipitation and represent promising candidates for ecofriendly industrial applications (Zhang et al, 2022 ; Baidya et al, 2023 ). Like struvite and K-struvite, hazenite could also be a potential phosphorus source for long-term release for fertilizer use (Watson et al, 2020 ; Raniro et al, 2022 ).…”

In silico analysis of chromium‐reducing OXR genes derived from tannery effluent‐contaminated soil metagenome

“…They had a charge of 0.50 and -0.62, and an isoelectric point of 6.6 and 7.1, respectively. In OXR8 A280, molar extinction In OXR8, the total number of amino acids charged multiplets was 10 (expected range from 0 to 14, Figure S1), out of which 3 were positive plets (+plets) and 7 negative plets (plets) (fraction of positive plets was 9.2% and negative plets was 10.7%) and a total number of charged altplets was four (critical number: 16) while in OXR3, the total number of amino acids charged multiplets was five (expected range from 0 to 17, Figure S1), out of which 3 were +plets and 2 -plets (fraction of positive and negative plets was 11.8%) and a total number of charged altplets was eight (critical number: 20).…”

“…[ 15 ] Chromate reductase contributes to the reduction process by transferring electrons and is a promising bioremediation alternative. [ 16 ] Several chromate reductases from bacterial sources have been identified, including ChrR, NemA, YieF, and LpDH, located in the cytoplasm or attached to the bacterial cell membrane. [ 17 ] A few microbial enzyme homologs with Cr‐reducing activity are NemA, YieF, and NfsA from Escherichia coli ; Frm2 and Ycp4 from Wickerhamomyces anomalus M10; NfrA from Bacillus subtilis; and ChrR from B. methylotrophicus .…”