Paul Goble
Staunton, July 20 – In what could be a game changer for Russia and other countries seeking to build and maintain roads and other infrastructure in areas where permafrost is now melting, scholars at the Institute of World Oceans at the Far Eastern Federal University say they have developed a bio-cement that will allow roads and buildings to melting and refreezing.
Reporting this development, Yulia Fursova of the Siberian Economist says that “building in the Arctic has always been a challenge. The soil constantly changes properties due to cyclical freezing and thawing which leads to the deformation of roads, buildings and pipelines (sibmix.com/?doc=22093).
“Traditional methods of strengthening require the importation of large volumes of cement or chemical reagents,” steps that Fursova points out are not only “expensive” but “unsafe for the fragile nature of the Arctic.” Now, specialists at the Far Eastern Federal University have come up with an alternative approach one based on bacteria.
Researchers there “isolated bacteria from coastal soils, capable of producing an enzyme that triggers a chemical reaction. When these microorganisms are added to the ground … they begin to produce calcium carbonate … and tiny calcite crystals fill the voids between the grains of sand and glue them, turning loose soil into a stone-like structure.”
“Unlike chemical reagents and cement, bacteria work gently and do not pollute the environment. Moreover, the process of bio-cement itself is involved in the binding of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - just as it happens in nature in the formation of limestone rocks,” one of the researchers involved says.
The developers say that the application of this technology is not limited to roads but can be used in dams, pipelines and other infrastructure elements. And they say that now they have completed laboratory research, they are ready for tests in the field. If these tests succeed, it could transform construction tasks in the north.
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