Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380

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Construction and Building Materials

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/conbuildmat

Stabilization of sand particles by bio-cement based on CO2 capture and

utilization: Process, mechanical properties and microstructure
Qiwei Zhan, Chunxiang Qian
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Jiulonghu Campus, Nanjing 211189, Peoples Republic of China

h i g h l i g h t s g r a p h i c a l a b s t r a c t

Bio-cement, as a new ecological and
environmental material, was used to
stabilize sand particles.

The process of cementation of sand
particles and effect of number of
spraying on sand practices stabilized
by bio-cement was tested.

Sand practices stabilized by bio-
cement had superior mechanical
properties and microstructure.
Bio-cement, as a new ecological and environmental material, was used to stabilize sand particles. The
process of cementation of sand particles and effect of number of spraying on sand practices stabilized
by bio-cement was investigated. In this process, sand practices were stabilized and formed larger parti-
cles. Number of spraying has a strong influence on the mechanical properties of samples, because number
of spraying could affect the concentration and quantity of the microorganisms so that the precipitated
calcite, pore content, hardness and compressive strength are different in samples. It is better to spraying
seven times than spraying one time, spraying three times and spraying five times, and it has higher hard-
ness and compressive strength, lower porosity, more calcite, superior wind erosion resistance and more
compact structure.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Bio-cement was used to stabilize sand particles, and the process of cementation of sand particles was ver-
Received 11 July 2016 ified. Meanwhile, the mechanical properties of sand practices stabilized by bio-cement for different num-
Received in revised form 18 September ber of spraying were tested. The results show that the hardness and compressive strength of samples
2016
increased with number of spraying: the average hardness and compressive strength of samples could
Accepted 15 December 2016
be up to 31.5 Gpa and 0.67 MPa after spraying seven times, respectively. With the increase of number
of spraying, the average calcite content of samples increased from 7.08% (one time) to 14.36% (seven
times). In addition, the wind erosion resistance and microstructure of samples with different number
Keywords:
Bio-cement
of spraying were analyzed. The results indicated that the wind erosion resistance and microstructure
Stabilization of samples became increasingly excellent and dense with the increase of number of spraying.
Sand practices Moreover, porosity character of samples was also tested. With the increase of number of spraying, the

Corresponding author at: School of Materials Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Jiulonghu Campus, Nanjing 211189, Peoples Republic of China.
E-mail address: zhanqiwei168@139.com (C. Qian).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2016.12.058
0950-0618/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
74 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380

Paenibacillus average porosity of samples reduced from 18.3% (one time) to 13.3% (seven times), while section poros-
Microstructure ity character of samples increased gradually with the depth.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction is gradually increasing. However, the construction of urban

infrastructure is facing serious shortage of supply [13]. There-
Based on economic development and improvement of living fore, large-scale infrastructure projects are being carried out
standards, the demand for infrastructure at home and abroad and will last for a long time. In the process of civil engineering

Fig. 1. The formation process of calcite and cementation process of sand particles by bio-cement. (a: formation process of calcite; b: cementation process of sand particles).
 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380 75

construction, it is inevitable to meet fugitive dust problem
[45].
In most cases, spraying water, covering dust-suppression net
and chemical dust-suppression is used to fugitive dust control
[610]. Because of high energy consumption, large investment,
and producing secondary pollution, these methods are difficult to
application largely [1116]. On account of the above serious disad-
vantage, bio-cement was proposed to the fugitive dust control. The
great promise of the use of bio-cement has been demonstrated in a
variety of fields. Several researchers have shown that microbe
cement can be used to improve the mechanical properties and per-
meability of porous materials [1719]. Bio-cement, as a new green
and environmental material, has stable and reliable effects, no sec-
ondary pollution, which, therefore, has become the most promising
method in fugitive dust control.
This paper, bio-cement was used to stabilize sand practices for
fugitive dust control. The process of cementation of sand particles
was verified. Effect of number of spraying (one time, three times,
five times, seven times) on mechanical properties and microstruc-
ture were tested. The mechanical properties, hardness and com-
pressive, strength, porosity, calcite content, wind erosion
resistance and microstructure, were studied sequentially. The
results of these studies demonstrated the feasibility of developing
more environmentally friendly bio-cement and showed that num-
ber of spraying has a strong effect on mechanical properties.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Experimental materials and apparatus
Bio-cement consisted of two parts: bacteria powder and calcium
source. Bacteria power is Paenibacillus, while the calcium source is
calcium nitrate. Paenibacillus is a naturally strain in the soil, and
the strains which used in this anuscript are from the soil. It is a gram

Fig. 2. Effect of number of spraying on hardness and compressive strength of samples.

Fig. 3. Effect of number of spraying on calcite content of samples.

76 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380
Fig. 4. Effect of number of spraying on wind erosion resistance of samples.
positive bacterium, which is in the shape of a rod. Colony was milky
white, round and opaque. The surface is wrinkled, slightly raised,
and the edges are not in order. The suitable grow and reproduce tem-
perature of Paenibacillus is 15 to 45 C, while the pH value is 610.
According to the results of previous studies, the optimum quality
proportion between bacteria power and calcium nitrate is 1: 117.
The dosage of bacteria power, calcium nitrate and water consump-
tion which cemented 1 m * 1 m * 2 cm sand body was 3 g, 351 g,
1 L, respectively. Cultivation of the Paenibacillus was conducted in
sucrose culture (10 g of sucrose and 3 g of disodium hydrogen phos-
phate were dissolved in deionized water to 1 L, and the pH value was
adjusted to about 7.0) at 35 C for 24 h. The harvested microorgan-
isms were kept in a refrigerator at 4 C for stock prior to use in spray-
ing process, while bacteria powder was used directly without
cultivation in blending process.
The sand practices used in this study was less than 100 lm of
sandy soil (grain size characteristics: d80 = 100 lm (80% of the
grains was lower than a diameter of this size).
Wind erosion plates (internal diameter 20.0 cm, height 2.0 cm)
were used in this study, and they were packed in the following
order: first a layer of approximately 0.2 cm of gauze was placed
at bottom of the wind erosion plates, followed by 2.0 cm of fugitive
dust of sandy soil. All experiments were conducted at room tem-
perature of 25 2 C.
2.2. Treating process
Pressure spraying was used to stabilize sand practices for fugi-
tive dust control by bio-cement based on CO2 utilization. Bacteria
solution was sprayed evenly on the surface of sand practices after
dissolved calcium nitrate, then the pressure of 1000 Pa was on the
surface after 24 h. Above process was recorded as spraying one
time, and multiple spraying could be realized by repeating the
above steps. Meanwhile, spraying one time, three times, five times,
seven times and spraying same volume of water was defined as A,
B, C, D and O, respectively. Afterwards, all of the samples were
dried at room temperature of 30 2 C until they were dried. The
samples were collected and characterized.
2.3. Analysis of samples
The calcite content in the sample was measured. The value of
minitial was recorded according to the porosity measurement. The
dried sample was mixed with excessive HCl, after sufficient time
for the chemical reaction, superfluous fluid was filtrated. The dried
residual matter was denoted as mresidual. Finally, calcite content (W)
was determined using the following formula:
minitial  mresidual
W  100 1
minitial
Using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of the sam-
ples, microstructure information is not the same in most cases due
to the different sampling position. At the same time, it could only
obtain 2-dimensional microstructure information of the samples
using SEM, and could not get the three-dimensional spatial distri-
bution information. Therefore, it couldnt reflect the microstruc-
ture characteristics of the samples fully and faithfully. In order to
obtain more reliable information, scanning electron microscopy
(SEM) and X-ray computed tomography (XCT) were applied to
the microstructure analysis simultaneously in this paper.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. The formation process of calcite and cementation process of sand
particles by bio-cement
Microbial mineralization and deposition is a relatively complex
physical and chemical process, to make use of this natural phe-
nomenon, the key is to improve the efficiency. Paenibacillus could
induce mineralization and increase the efficiency by about 109
times under a certain concentration. Based on the high efficiency,
Paenibacillus can be applied to the reality to reinforce the founda-
tion, slope stability, desert control and so on. The formation
process of calcite is shown in Fig. 1(a). Paenibacillus capture carbon
dioxide from the air and produce bicarbonate ions via the hydra-
tion of carbon dioxide under the action of the enzyme. The part
of bicarbonate ions enters into the microbial cells and occurrs
 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380 77

Fig. 5. Effect of number of spraying on SEM photographs of sample.

the dissociation reaction of hydroxyl. Hydroxide ions provide an
alkaline environment for the whole reaction, and that is conducive
to the realization of the mineralization process because Paenibacil-
lus is a kind of alkaline bacteria. Under the alkaline environment
and action of enzyme, carbonate ions formate in cell vitro. Mean-
while, calcium ions were mineralized and precipitated to calcite
particles at the microbial cells surface serving as the nucleation
site. The cementation process of sand particles by bio-cement is
shown in Fig. 1(b). After bio-cement spraying on the surface of
the sand particles, the formation of calcite could cement sand
particles effectively, fill defect, improve the microstructure and
the mechanical properties.
that the number of spraying significantly affect hardness and
compressive strength of samples. It could be seen from Fig. 2 that
average hardness of samples spraying one time, three times, five
times and seven times is 18.2 Gpa, 26.8 Gpa, 29.6 Gpa and
31.5 Gpa, while average compressive strength of samples is
0.53 MPa, 0.61 MPa, 0.65 MPa and 0.67 MPa, respectively. By com-
parison, the average hardness of samples spraying seven times is
larger than others which increases by about 73% comparing with
that of samples spraying one time, and average compressive
strength increases by about 26%. However, the increase range of
hardness and compressive strength significantly reduce with the
increase of number of spraying.

3.2. Hardness and compressive strength of samples 3.3. Calcite content of samples

Effect of number of spraying on hardness and compressive Effect of number of spraying on calcite content are shown in
strength are presented in Fig. 2. The experimental results indicated Fig. 3. As Fig. 3 showed, the average calcite content of samples
78 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380
Fig. 6. Effect of number of spraying on porosity of samples.
spraying one time, three times, five times and seven times is 7.08%,
11.56%, 13.22% and 14.36%, respectively. The average calcite con-
tent of samples spraying seven times is higher than that of others.
However, the increase range of calcite content decrease in the -
same way, and it is consistent with the results of hardness and
compressive strength and.
3.4. Wind erosion resistance of samples
Effect of number of spraying on wind erosion resistance are
shown in Fig. 4. Fig. 4 showed, under different wind speed, the
mass loss in the case of non-spraying is about 260, 1020, 1650
and 2200 g/(m2h), respectively. With the increase of wind speed,
the mass loss is significantly increased. However, the mass loss is
all less than 30 g/(m2h) spraying one time, three times, five times
and seven times, and no matter how much the wind speed, the
change of the mass loss is not obvious. Moreover, the wind erosion
resistance of samples which spraying seven times is better than
that others.
3.5. Microstructure of samples
Effect of number of spraying on microstructure are shown in
Fig. 5. As Fig. 5 (O) showed, the overall evaluation of the SEM pho-
tographs of samples indicated sand particles are loose and no
bonded together, and the porosity between particles is higher
without the formation of calcite. However, sand particles are
bonded together, form a complete block and small particles are
observed hardly in Fig. 5(A, B, C, D). Compared with Fig. 5(A, B),
sand particles cemented by bio-cement are more dense, lower
porosity and formed more calcite in Fig. 5(C, D). These results
imply that sand particles do not bind adequately in the case of
spraying one time and spraying three times due to the weak
surface adhesive force. Nevertheless, sand particles cemented by
bio-cement shows favorable mechanical properties, and the advan-
tages of spraying seven times is even more significant.
3.6. Porosity of samples
Effect of number of spraying on porosity is shown in Fig. 6. The
experimental results show that the average porosity of samples
effectively reduces from 18.3% (one time) to 15.2% (three times),
14.1% (five times) and 13.3% (seven times), indicating that the
porosity decreases with an increase of number of spraying, but
the reduced range is different. Through a simple calculation, it
can be concluded that the reduce range of the average porosity
of samples is 3.1%, 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively. It could be expected
that the reduce range of the average porosity would also be
reduced with the increase of number of spraying. The reason might
be that the calcite content will gradually increase and the surface
of the consolidated layer will be more dense in the case of increas-
ing the number of spraying. It affects the absorption and transfor-
mation of CO2, and further blocks the formation of calcite. The
results of porosity are in keeping with the results of hardness
and compressive strength, and the above inference is proved
strongly.
In addition, the section porosity character of samples at
different depth (0 mm, 5 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm and 20 mm) were
demonstrated. The section photos of samples at different depth
were obtained by XCT, and the section porosity character was
analyzed according to gray values by Image 5.0. The section poros-
ity character of samples are shown in Fig. 7. As Fig. 7 showed, the
gray values of defects and matrix materials are obviously differ-
ence. A threshold of gray level is automatically chosen to search
defects after comparing the gray level distributions of defects
and matrix materials. Meanwhile, in order to mark the volume of
defects, the red area from small to big represents the defect volume
from small to big, respectively. From Fig. 7, it could be seen that
section porosity at 0 mm are less than that of section at 5, 10, 15
and 20 mm. This indicates that the microstructure at 0 mm is
denser than that at 5, 10, 15 and 20 mm. Furthermore, with the
increase of depth, pores and cracks of section significantly
increased. The reason is also that the transmission of carbon
 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380 79

Fig. 7. Section porosity character of samples at different depth.

dioxide and the penetration of bio-cement affect the production of 4. Conclusions

calcite. With the increase of number of spraying, section porosity
at the same depth significantly decreased due to more calcite
preparation.
Numerical simulation and correlation of porosity of samples
stabilized by bio-cement are shown in Fig. 8. Fig. 8(A) showed that
the porosity of different cross-sections at 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mm is
2.5%, 3.7%, 6.9%, 11.7% and 25.3% according to gray analysis results
by Image J 5.0. Basis on gray calculation value of porosity, numer-
ical simulation and correlation of the porosity at different sections
are carried out, and the equation could be found in Fig. 8. The cal-
culated values are in agreement with the simulated values, and the
correlation curve could be effectively used to forecast and analyze
the pores and cracks characteristics of samples.
This paper, the process of cementation of sand particles and
effect of number of spraying on sand practices stabilized by bio-
cement was investigated. The results obtained in this work could
be summarized as follows: CO2 was absorbed, transformed and
produced carbonate ions under the enzymatic action of Paenibacil-
lus. Meanwhile, carbonate ions could mineralize calcium ions into
calcite which have superior mechanical properties. In this process,
sand practices were stabilized and formed larger particles. Number
of spraying has a strong influence on the mechanical properties of
samples, because number of spraying could affect the concentra-
tion and quantity of the microorganisms so that the precipitated
calcite, pore content, hardness and compressive strength are
80 Q. Zhan, C. Qian / Construction and Building Materials 133 (2017) 7380
Fig. 8. Numerical simulation and correlation of porosity of samples at different depth.
different in samples. It is better to spraying seven times than
spraying one time, spraying three times and spraying five times,
and it has higher hardness and compressive strength, lower poros-
ity, more calcite, superior wind erosion resistance and more com-
pact structure.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported financially by the National Nature
Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51372038), Key Research
and Development Program of Jiangsu Science and Technology
Department (Grant No. BE2015678), Science and Technology
Research Program of Jiangsu Transport Department (Grant No.
2015T32) and Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School
of Southeast University (YBJJ1566).
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