Polymer-assisted soybean crude urease carbonate precipitation technique for soil improvement

Abstract

This study presents a sustainable approach to soil improvement by integrating polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) into the Soybean Crude Urease Carbonate Precipitation (SCU-CP) technique. The research aims to enhance SCU-CP, which utilizes soybean-derived urease to precipitate calcium carbonate, bonding soil particles and increasing strength. Challenges such as low solution viscosity and inconsistent carbonate precipitation are addressed by incorporating PVA, a biodegradable polymer that improves viscosity and retention. Comprehensive evaluations reveal significant findings: increasing PVA concentration enhances solution viscosity and results in higher calcium carbonate precipitation. Water retention assessments show that the PCP-1% treatment increases saturation water content (w_s) to 0.263 compared to 0.217 for untreated soil, while also reduces the air-entry value (α). Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) tests indicate substantial improvement for PCP-1%, achieving approximately 140 kPa, with values reaching 179 kPa after 28 days. Calcium carbonate content measurements reveal that SCU-CP exhibits a variable distribution (standard deviation of 1.13), while PCP-1% demonstrates a more uniform distribution (standard deviation of 0.60), indicating improved effectiveness. Durability assessments through wet-dry cycling show that SCU-CP experiences a mass loss of 36.5%, while PCP-1% retains only 5% mass loss and maintains a UCS values. SEM images indicate that SCU-CP forms spherical structures, whereas PCP-1% produces a more diverse and crystalline morphology, suggesting better nucleation and distribution. Overall, the polymer-assisted SCU-CP technique (PCP) demonstrates significant potential for effective soil improvement.

Keywords

Carbonates / Polymer / Soil improvement / Uniformity

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Heriansyah Putra: Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Hideaki Yasuhara: Writing - review & editing, Supervision. Naoki Kinoshita: Writing - review & editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Zalfa Maulida Ihsani: Writing - review & editing, Writing - original draft, Methodology, Investigation, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by JST SPRING, Grant Number JPMJSP2162, and was partly supported by Shin Nihon Grout Industry Co., Ltd. The authors sincerely appreciate their support.

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