Application of technical grade reagent in soybean-crude urease calcite precipitation (SCU-CP) method for soil improvement technique

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pce.2022.103292Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A novel soil improvement technique called soybean crude urease calcite precipitation (SCU-CP).

  • SCU-CP using raw soybean and technical reagent have great potential to be applied.

  • The slower reaction using soybean instead urease enzyme provides a higher uniformity distribution of calcite.

  • SEM result shows that the round shape and amorphous phase of calcite promoted by SCU-CP

  • SCU-CP with the raw soybean and technical reagent reduces the material cost by up to 98%.

Abstract

Soybean crude urease-calcite precipitation (SCU-CP) is a potential method as a sustainable and economical soil improvement technique. This method begins with developing the bio-cementation method that has successfully increased soil strength. The use of laboratory-grade material is high-cost for large-scale. The applicability of original soybean material combined with technical grade reagent in SCU-CP was discussed, considering its relevance for a larger scale treatment. The hydrolysis rate, test-tube experiment, and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) test were conducted to evaluate the entire material's potential for the calcite precipitation method considered for precipitation materials. This study shows that low-cost soybean material and technical-grade reagents have a good level of effectiveness for calcite production. The low-cost material of soybean 20 g/L produced the highest hydrolysis rate of 331.701 u/g. Technical-grade reagent with a concentration of 1 mol/L was proven effective compared to laboratory-grade with a precipitation ratio of 114.44%. XRD results showed that the highest calcite formation was in technical-grade samples using soybean Gasol with a crystallinity of 40.25%. Unconfined compressive strength (UCS) results showed that the original soybean has a higher value than other solutions, which is 66.18 kPa in 14 days. Therefore, technical-grade materials are more economical with 100% cheaper than laboratory-grade. The result of this study elucidated that SCU-CP has a high potential to be an economical, sustainable and effective soil improvement technique.

Introduction

Soil is an essential aspect of infrastructure construction. Although it is a natural product with different soil characteristics at each location, even on the same slope, the soil has unique physical characteristics (Putri et al., 2017). The unique physical and chemical properties significantly vary soil strength parameters. Low-strength soil has less carrying capacity and cannot support the load of the building is an inhibiting factor for infrastructure construction. An alternative is to avoid developing poor soil conditions or improving soil conditions (Hatmoko and Suryadharma, 2020). Physical and chemical treatments generally carry out soil improvement methods (Sing et al., 2009). Soil improvement methods that have been widely used include shallow and deep compaction, soil improvement by dewatering, grouting, pre-loading, geosynthetic soil reinforcement, and soil improvement with added materials (Hatmoko and Suryadharma, 2020).

Soil improvement technique using the Enzyme-Induced Calcite Precipitation or EICP method begins with the development of the bio-cementation method. One type of soil improvement method based on calcite precipitation uses the enzyme urease on ureolytic bacteria, known as Microbially-Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP), by utilizing bacteria such as Sporosarcina pasteurii (DeJong et al., 2006). However, according to Yasuhara et al. (2012), the MICP method requires complex and complex techniques for using bacteria and growth media. Thus, it has the potential to cause failure in its implementation. Therefore, other approaches are needed to produce calcite without bacterial culture. Soil improvement techniques using calcite without bacteria were developed using Enzyme-Induced Calcite Precipitation or EICP. The EICP method research on sand soil improvement has been carried out by Putra et al. (2017) with the results that the soil strength can reach 300 kPa (Putra, 2017). The EICP method has successfully increased the strength of sandy soils and can be used to prevent liquefaction (Putra et al., 2017a), (Putra et al., 2020a). However, using enzyme urease as the catalyst in calcite formation promotes a high cost considered uneconomical and inefficient for large-scale soil improvement (Cuccurullo et al., 2020a).

The research was conducted to replace urease with cheaper and easier-to-find materials. The material used is utilized enzymes found in plants as bio-catalysts. Plants that can be used as bio-catalysts include cabbage and soybean extracts (Baiq et al., 2020a). Using cabbage and soybean extract as a bio-catalyst in the EICP method is cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Baiq et al. (2020a) reported that using a test-tube experiment, 40–60% of urea material can be precipitated with cabbage and soybean extracts without purification, whereas the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis shows that the precipitated material is calcium carbonate. Urease solution using yellow soybeans can be an alternative to the MICP method (Lee and Kim, 2020). Using soybeans as a catalyst in the calcite precipitation method can be used as an improvement in fine-grained soils (Gao et al., 2019). Another study proved that soybeans, as a strength enhancer for sandy soil, increased their strength up to 168 kPa (Meisnnehr et al., 2021). This method can be used as a strength enhancer in soil, increasing shear strength and stiffness and reducing permeability (Putra et al., 2018), (Putra et al., 2020b). Soybean can be used as an alternative source of potential urease, with the enzyme reaction rate reaching 104 u/g, which in pure urease is 2.950 u/g (Putra et al., 2020b). Enzyme reactions using soybeans have a reaction speed of 1/10 times slower. This slower reaction is one of the reasons the application of calcite precipitation using soybean bio-catalyst can reach deeper soil depths.

Studies using soybean in the calcite precipitation method show great potential to develop more on a field scale. This method can potentially improve other soil types in the large industry of soil improvement. To ensure the availability of materials and have more low-cost to large scale, we need to find materials that are suitable in effectiveness and price. Applying calcite precipitation for large-scale treatment requires large materials; thus, using laboratory-standard material has an expensive selling value. In this study, the applicability of the low-cost material of soybean combined with technical grade reagent in soybean crude urease calcite precipitation (SCU-CP) is evaluated for its potential for the extensive application considered to the precipitation process, e.g., reaction rate, calcite mass, and precipitation material composition using the urease activity test, test-tube experiment, and XRD analysis, respectively.

Section snippets

Material

The materials used in this study were composed of soybean and reagent (calcium chloride and Urea). Low-cost soybean with conventional treatment (bean-based product) or called original soybean (O), and commercial products of Gasol (powder-based product) or called Gasol soybean (G) are used to compare the applicability of those materials and refer to a reduction of the cost. Different from the original soybean and Gasol the size of them, the original soybean has a size of 0.1–0.5 mm, and Gasol

Hydrolysis rate

A hydrolysis rate was conducted to evaluate the effect of soybean in hydrolyzing Urea. Hydrolyzing Urea has the impact of EICP, which is better in hydrolyzing than calcite precipitation's effect (Putra et al., 2021), (Arrazzaq et al., 2021). In this study, Urea and CaCl2 were variable in laboratory grade (L) and technical grade (T). Soybeans also varied to Gasol (G) with the size <0.1 mm and original (O) soybean with the size 0.1–0.5 mm. The original soybeans were ground and filtered using a

Conclusion

The applicability of original soybean with size 0.1–0.5 mm and technical grade reagent in soybean crude urease for calcite precipitation (SCU-CP) method have been evaluated. The use of the original soybean with a size of 0.1–0.5 mm and technical grade reagent is compared to the Gasol soybean with a size of <0.1 mm and laboratory grade reagent, and its effectivity in the precipitation process was evaluated using a set of experiments. This study shows that using technical grade reagents

Authorship statements

All persons who meet authorship criteria are listed as authors, and all authors certify that they have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content, including participation in the concept, design, analysis, writing, or revision of the manuscript entitled.

Furthermore, each author certifies that this material or similar material has not been and will not be submitted to or published in any other publication.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Heriansyah Putra reports financial support was provided by Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Republic of Indonesia. Heriansyah Putra reports a relationship with Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Republic of Indonesia that includes: funding grants.

Acknowledgment

This research has been financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, Republic of Indonesia, grant number 082/E5/PG.02.00.PT/2022. The authors sincerely appreciate their support.

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