scholarly journals Towards a low CO2 emission building material employing bacterial metabolism in a two-step process of limestone dissolution and recrystallization: The bacterial system and prototype production

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Røyne ◽  
Yi Jing Phua ◽  
Simone Balzer Le ◽  
Ina Grosås Eikjeland ◽  
Kjell Domaas Josefsen ◽  
...  

AbstractThe production of concrete for construction purposes is a major source of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. One promising avenue towards a more sustainable construction industry is to make use of naturally occurring mineral-microbe interactions, such as microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP), to produce solid materials. In this paper, we present a new process where calcium carbonate in the form of powdered limestone is transformed to a binder material (termed BioZEment) through microbial dissolution and recrystallization. For the dissolution step, a suitable bacterial strain, closely related to Bacillus pumilus, was isolated from soil near a limestone quarry. We show that this strain produces organic acids from glucose, inducing the dissolution of calcium carbonate in an aqueous slurry of powdered limestone. In the second step, the dissolved limestone solution is used as the calcium source for MICP in sand packed syringe moulds. The amounts of acid produced and calcium carbonate dissolved are shown to depend on the amount of available oxygen as well as the degree of mixing. Precipitation is induced through the pH increase caused by the hydrolysis of urea, mediated by the enzyme urease, which is produced in situ by the bacterium Sporosarcina pasteurii DSM33. The degree of successful consolidation of sand by BioZEment was found to depend on both the amount of urea and the amount of glucose available in the dissolution reaction.

Author(s):  
S. Q. Xiao ◽  
S. Baden ◽  
A. H. Heuer

The avian eggshell is one of the most rapidly mineralizing biological systems known. In situ, 5g of calcium carbonate are crystallized in less than 20 hrs to fabricate the shell. Although there have been much work about the formation of eggshells, controversy about the nucleation and growth mechanisms of the calcite crystals, and their texture in the eggshell, still remain unclear. In this report the microstructure and microchemistry of avian eggshells have been analyzed using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).Fresh white and dry brown eggshells were broken and fixed in Karnosky's fixative (kaltitanden) for 2 hrs, then rinsed in distilled H2O. Small speckles of the eggshells were embedded in Spurr medium and thin sections were made ultramicrotome.The crystalline part of eggshells are composed of many small plate-like calcite grains, whose plate normals are approximately parallel to the shell surface. The sizes of the grains are about 0.3×0.3×1 μm3 (Fig.l). These grains are not as closely packed as man-made polycrystalline metals and ceramics, and small gaps between adjacent grains are visible indicating the absence of conventional grain boundaries.


1961 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 545-562 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Kecskés ◽  
F. Mutschler ◽  
I. Glós ◽  
E. Thán ◽  
I. Farkas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT 1. An indirect paperchromatographic method is described for separating urinary oestrogens; this consists of the following steps: acidic hydrolysis, extraction with ether, dissociation of phenol-fractions with partition between the solvents. Previous purification of phenol fraction with the aid of paperchromatography. The elution of oestrogen containing fractions is followed by acetylation. Oestrogen acetate is isolated by re-chromatography. The chromatogram was developed after hydrolysis of the oestrogens 'in situ' on the paper. The quantity of oestrogens was determined indirectly, by means of an iron-reaction, after the elution of the iron content of the oestrogen spot, which was developed by the Jellinek-reaction. 2. The method described above is satisfactory for determining urinary oestrogen, 17β-oestradiol and oestriol, but could include 16-epioestriol and other oestrogenic metabolites. 3. The sensitivity of the method is 1.3–1.6 μg/24 hours. 4. The quantitative and qualitative determination of urinary oestrogens with the above mentioned method was performed in 50 pregnant and 9 non pregnant women, and also in 2 patients with granulosa cell tumour.


2013 ◽  
Vol 85 (17) ◽  
pp. 8121-8126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta Opitz ◽  
Andreas Prediger ◽  
Christian Lüder ◽  
Marrit Eckstein ◽  
Lutz Hilterhaus ◽  
...  

1975 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 586-607 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Simionescu ◽  
M Siminoescu ◽  
G E Palade

Two heme-peptides (HP) of about 20-A diameter (heme-undecapeptide [H11P], mol wt approximately 1900 and heme-octapeptide [H8P], mol wt approximately 1550), obtained by enzymic hydrolysis of cytochrome c, were sued as probe molecules in muscle capillaries (rat diaphragm). They were localized in situ by a perixidase reaction, enhanced by the addition of imidazole to the incubation medium. Chromatography of plasma samples showed that HPs circulate predominantly as monomers for the duration of the experiments and are bound by aldehyde fixatives to plasma proteins to the extent of approximately 50% (H8P) to approximately 95% (H11P). Both tracers cross the endothelium primarily via plasmalemmal vesicles which become progressively labeled (by reaction product) from the blood front to the tissue front of the endothelium, in three successive resolvable phases. By the end of each phase the extent of labeling reaches greater than 90% of the corresponding vesicle population. Labeled vesicles appear as either isolated units or chains which form patent channels across the endothelium. The patency of these channels was checked by specimen tilting and graphic analysis of their images. No evidence was found for early or preferential marking of the intercellular junctions and spaces by reaction product. It is concluded that the channels are the most likely candidate for structural equivalents of the small pores of the capillary wall since they are continuous, water-filled passages, and are provided with one or more strictures of less than 100 A. Their frequency remains to be established by future work.


2006 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Giunchi ◽  
Giovanni Ripamonti ◽  
Elena Perini ◽  
Stefano Ginocchio ◽  
Enrico Bassani ◽  
...  

The issues in the conventional sintering of the MgB2 superconductors have conducted to the discovery of a new way to densify this material. The new process is an “in situ” method that relies on the reactive liquid infiltration (RLI) of liquid Magnesium into Boron powders packed preform. The RLI process allows to obtain highly dense manufacts without the use of hot pressing apparatus and can be applied to the manufacture of large superconducting pieces. One of the peculiarities of the MgB2 superconductivity, that withstand up to 39 K, is represented by the relative insensitiveness of the supercurrent percolation to the orientation of the grain boundaries. This property allows to use polycrystalline material without loosing superconducting performance, granted that a good connectivity between the crystalline grains must be realized, as the RLI process allows to do. The microstructure of the bulk material obtained by RLI shows a variety of morphologies, according to the kind of the used Boron powders and to the process variables. A detailed analysis of the microstructure of the MgB2 obtained by RLI will be presented, as well as its analytical description and the correlation with the superconducting characteristics.


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