IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i18p10238-d634910.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bio-Cementation for Improving Soil Thermal Conductivity

Author

Listed:
  • Liang Cheng

    (School of Environmental and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China)

  • Natalia Afur

    (School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia)

  • Mohamed A Shahin

    (School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Curtin University, Bentley, WA 6102, Australia)

Abstract

A promising technology for renewable energy is energy piles used to heat and cool buildings. In this research, the effects of bio-cementation via microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) using mixed calcium and magnesium sources and the addition of fibres on the thermal conductivity of soil were investigated. Firstly, silica sand specimens were treated with cementation solutions containing different ratios of calcium chloride and magnesium chloride to achieve maximum thermal conductivity improvement. Three treatment cycles were provided, and the corresponding thermal conductivity was measured after each cycle. It was found that using 100% calcium chloride resulted in the highest thermal conductivity. This cementation solution was then used to treat bio-cemented soil samples containing fibres, including polyethylene, steel and glass fibres. The fibre contents used included 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.5% of the dry sand mass. The results show that the glass fibre samples yielded the highest thermal conductivity after three treatment cycles, and SEM imaging was used to support the findings. This research suggests that using MICP as a soil improvement technique can also improve the thermal conductivity of soil surrounding energy piles, which has high potential to effectively improve the efficiency of energy piles.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang Cheng & Natalia Afur & Mohamed A Shahin, 2021. "Bio-Cementation for Improving Soil Thermal Conductivity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-13, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10238-:d:634910
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10238/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10238/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10238-:d:634910. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.