Microbial network of the carbonate precipitation process induced by microbial consortia and the potential application to crack healing in concrete

Abstract

Current studies have employed various pure-cultures for improving concrete durability based on microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP). However, there have been very few reports concerned with microbial consortia, which could perform more complex tasks and be more robust in their resistance to environmental fluctuations. In this study, we constructed three microbial consortia that are capable of MICP under aerobic (AE), anaerobic (AN) and facultative anaerobic (FA) conditions. The results showed that AE consortia showed more positive effects on inorganic carbon conversion than AN and FA consortia. Pyrosequencing analysis showed that clear distinctions appeared in the community structure between different microbial consortia systems. Further investigation on microbial community networks revealed that the species in the three microbial consortia built thorough energetic and metabolic interaction networks regarding MICP, nitrate-reduction, bacterial endospores and fermentation communities. Crack-healing experiments showed that the selected cracks of the three consortia-based concrete specimens were almost completely healed in 28 days, which was consistent with the studies using pure cultures. Although the economic advantage might not be clear yet, this study highlights the potential implementation of microbial consortia on crack healing in concrete.

Microbially-Induced-Calcite-Precipitation (MICP): A biotechnological approach to enhance the durability of concrete using Bacillus pasteurii and Bacillus sphaericus

“…The negatively charged bacterial cell surface attracts Ca 2+ for CaCO 3 precipitation, thus enhance self-healing as shown in Eqs. (10) and (11) [ 53 , 54 , 55 ]. …”

Kinetic model of a newly‐isolated Lysinibacillus sp. strain YL and elastic properties of its biogenic CaCO3 towards biocement application

“…The mixture was incubated at 30°C, 150 rpm for 7 days, which is a common growth condition for soil bacteria. [ 28 ] Soil suspensions were serially diluted and then spread onto B4 agar. Plates were incubated at 30°C for 7 days or until colonies with white deposits developed.…”

Micro-continuum modelling of injection strategies for microbially induced carbonate precipitation

“…Modelling shows that an approach of combining different bacteria strains with different attachment properties may make more efficient use of the urea. It has also been suggested that co-cultures of bacteria can increase CaCO3 precipitation by providing more nucleation sites [23,24] or prove to be more robust across a range of environmental conditions [25]. However, these benefits would have to be weighed against the extra costs required to optimally grow, store, and transport multiple types of bacteria compared with S. pasteurii alone.…”