{"id":305,"date":"2014-11-11T09:26:43","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T09:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu\/ginn\/?page_id=305"},"modified":"2014-11-19T01:13:13","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:13:13","slug":"bio-cementation-at-field-scale","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu\/ginn\/projects\/bio-cementation-at-field-scale\/","title":{"rendered":"Microbially-Induced Calcite Precipitation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microbially-Induced Calcite Precipitation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Current Funding:\u00a0 NSF\/CMMI, <\/strong>Bio-Cementation Field-Scale Trials: Addressing the Challenges of Treatment Unformity & Verification, Biostimulation, & By-Product Management, <\/strong>(co-PI with J. DeJong\/UCDavis), $596,646, 2012-2015.<\/p>\n

Students<\/strong>\u00a0 Mohamed Nassar, Mehrdad Bastani, Titus Garrett.<\/p>\n

Collaborators:<\/strong> J. DeJong, Doug Nelson, UC Davis; Bob Smith Idaho National Lab.<\/p>\n

Project Summary<\/strong>.\u00a0 Bio-mediated soil improvement, and in particular the use of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) as a natural bio-mediated cementation process for sand improvement, has progressed rapidly.\u00a0 Recent field implementations\u00a0 have revealed critical issues regarding treatment uniformity and verification, bio-stimulation, and by-product management. We directly address these issues through modest field-scale trials supported by experimental and numerical modeling. In this project we perform two field-scale trials in an embedded 6.7 m diameter by 5.5 m deep test chamber using natural liquefiable sand.<\/p>\n

\"insitu.cylinder.image\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"well1to2Darcyplan\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Plan and section view of 5-spot treatment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Color schematic of treatment solution flow rates.<\/em><\/p>\n

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The first trial relies on bio-augmentation (injection of bacteria) in order to provide a low-risk ground-truth set of data unencumbered by the unknown spatial distribution of native bacteria that we face with bio- stimulation.\u00a0 The second trial will use bio-stimulation (activation of native sessile bacteria) that introduces the additional degree of freedom (spatial distribution of bacteria) but is also the most desirable field scale treatment approach for the future. It is more practical (cost, permitting), has reduced by-product generation, and may increase uniformity. Both trials will enable study of by-product generation during treatment and its fate after soil improvement. Treatment will occur using a 3 well pattern as shown above, with iterated dipole pumping between sequential pairs of wells. The full-scale work is supported by parallel efforts developing a robust bio-stimulation technique and modeling of the field trials to develop a predictive modeling tool that accounts for bio-stimulation, by-product transport and fate, and spatial heterogeneity.<\/p>\n

Important papers on the topic:<\/strong><\/p>\n