Abstract
Biomineralization is a naturally occurring process in living organisms. In this review, we discuss microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) in detail. In the MICP process, urease plays a major role in urea hydrolysis by a wide variety of microorganisms capable of producing high levels of urease. We also elaborate on the different polymorphs and the role of calcium in the formation of calcite crystal structures using various calcium sources. Additionally, the environmental factors affecting the production of urease and carbonate precipitation are discussed. This MICP is a promising, eco-friendly alternative approach to conventional and current remediation technologies to solve environmental problems in multidisciplinary fields. Multiple applications of MICP such as removal of heavy metals and radionuclides, improve the quality of construction materials and sequestration of atmospheric CO2 are discussed. In addition, we discuss other applications such as removal of calcium ions, PCBs and use of filler in rubber and plastics and fluorescent particles in stationary ink and stationary markers. MICP technology has become an efficient aspect of multidisciplinary fields. This report not only highlights the major strengths of MICP, but also discusses the limitations to application of this technology on a commercial scale.
Highlights
Biomineralization is the chemical alteration of an environment by microbial activity that results in the precipitation of minerals (Stocks-Fischer et al 1999; Barkay and Schaefer 2001; Phillips et al 2013)
In the microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) process, lead was bound with the MICP product, which was responsible for Pb immobilization and resulted in significantly reduced Pb levels in the environment (Achal et al 2012a; Kang et al 2015a)
A wide variety of microorganisms can be used in the production of urease for ureolysisdriven processes
Summary
Biomineralization is the chemical alteration of an environment by microbial activity that results in the precipitation of minerals (Stocks-Fischer et al 1999; Barkay and Schaefer 2001; Phillips et al 2013). Achal et al (2009a) developed a mutant strain (BP-M-3) of Sporosarcina pasteurii MTCC 1761 that produced an enhanced level of urease activity and calcite precipitation compared to the wild type. The calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitation process is a straightforward and controllable mechanism of MICP that can produce high concentrations of CaCO3 in short period of time (Dhami et al 2013a).
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