Investigating Ammonium By-product Removal for Ureolytic Bio-cementation Using Meter-scale Experiments

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 18313 - 15
• Main Authors: Lee, Minyong, Gomez, Michael G, San Pablo, Alexandra C M, Kolbus, Colin M, Graddy, Charles M R, DeJong, Jason T, Nelson, Douglas C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Nature Publishing Group 04.12.2019; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: Ammonium; Calcite; Calcium carbonate; Chemical precipitation; Investigations; Ionic strength
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-54666-1

Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP), or bio-cementation, is a promising bio-mediated technology that can improve the engineering properties of soils through the precipitation of calcium carbonate. Despite significant advances in the technology, concerns regarding the fate of produced NH by-products have remained largely unaddressed. In this study, five 3.7-meter long soil columns each containing one of three different soils were improved using ureolytic bio-cementation, and post-treatment NH by-product removal was investigated during the application of 525 L of a high pH and high ionic strength rinse solution. During rinsing, reductions in aqueous NH were observed in all columns from initial concentrations between ≈100 mM to 500 mM to final values between ≈0.3 mM and 20 mM with higher NH concentrations observed at distances furthest from the injection well. In addition, soil V measurements completed during rinse injections suggested that no significant changes in cementation integrity occurred during NH removal. After rinsing and a 12 hour stop flow period, all column solutions achieved cumulative NH removals exceeding 97.9%. Soil samples collected following rinsing, however, contained significant sorbed NH masses that appeared to have a near linear relationship with surrounding aqueous NH concentrations. While these results suggest that NH can be successfully removed from bio-cemented soils, acceptable limits for NH aqueous concentrations and sorbed NH masses will likely be governed by site-specific requirements and may require further investigation and refinement of the developed techniques.