Stimulated microbial growth for permeability reductions in granular soils

Abstract

The controlled production of microbial growth has the potential to reduce groundwater flow in seepage and dewatering systems. Stimulating the growth of indigenous bacteria could clog the pore space and result in a substantial permeability reduction. This study investigated the spatial distribution of permeability reduction under different nutrient stimulation treatments of indigenous bacteria across 16 cm columns of Ottawa 50–70 sand. Spatially uniform permeability reductions of up to an order of magnitude were achieved using both a high glucose (50 mg/l) and a low glucose (10 mg/l) nutrient formulation. The overall permeability began to decrease by day 2 and approached a minimum permeability by day 14. There was no noticeable difference in the final permeability nor the rate of permeability reduction between high and low glucose formulations. Upscaling of experiments is highly recommended for future studies on the spatial uniformity of microbial growth and biologically induced permeability reductions.