Toward Industrialization of Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation for Wind Erosion Suppression

Toward Industrialization of Microbially Induced Carbonate Precipitation for Wind Erosion Suppression: Novel Methodology, Challenges, and OpportunitiesSayed Fakhreddin Afzali, Mohammad Hemayati, Ali Niazi & Ehsan Nikooee Iranian Joual of Science and Technology, Transactions of Civil Engineering (2023)https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40996-023-01190-yWind erosion is one of the important environmental challenges of Iran, requiring emerging and novel civil engineering solutions. An eco-friendly soil improvement technique for mitigating wind erosion is microbially induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), where the microbially induced bio-cementation binds the grains together, thereby increasing wind erosion resistance. Favoring its low CO2 footprint, microbially induced bio-cementation is considered a green and sustainable technology. However, there have been conces about the most effective methodology for bacterial solution preparation that makes this method’s field application viable. This study presents a novel method to prepare the bacterial solution for rapid and effective wind erosion suppression. Using bacterial dormancy and activation on-site, the final treatment product performs much better in wind tuel and surface penetrometer tests than regular MICP. Furthermore, it requires much less urea in its carbonate precipitation process, leading to fewer ammonium ions and less toxicity. The method alleviates the need for the cultivation of bacteria before the