Microbial-induced calcite precipitation (MICP) is a promising new technology in the area of Civil Engineering with potential to become a cost-effective, environmentally friendly and sustainable solution to many problems such as ground improvement, liquefaction remediation, enhancing properties of concrete and so forth. This paper reviews the research and developments over the past 25 years since the first reported application of MICP in 1995. Historical developments in the area, the biological processes involved, the behaviour of improved soils, developments in modelling the behaviour of treated soil and the challenges associated are discussed with a focus on the geotechnical aspects of the problem. The paper also presents an assessment of cost and environmental benefits tied with three application scenarios in pavement construction. It is understood for some applications that at this stage, MICP may not be a cost-effective or even environmentally friendly solution; however, following the latest developments, MICP has the potential to become one.

Enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) is a relatively new bio-cementation technique for ground improvement. In EICP, calcium carbonate (${\mathrm{CaCO}}_3$) precipitation occurs via urea hydrolysis catalysed by the urease enzyme sourced from plants. EICP offers significant potential for innovative and sustainable engineering applications, including strengthening of soils, remediation of contaminants, enhancement of oil recovery through bio-plugging and other in situ field applications. Given the numerous potential applications of EICP, theoretical understanding of the rate and quantity of ${\mathrm{CaCO}}_3$ precipitation via the ureolytic chemical reaction is vital for optimising the process. For instance, in a typical EICP process, the rate and quantity of ${\mathrm{CaCO}}_3$ precipitation can depend significantly on the concentration, activity and kinetic properties of the enzyme used along with the reaction environment such as pH and temperature. This paper reviews the research and development of enzyme-catalysed reactions and its applications for enhancing ${\mathrm{CaCO}}_3$ precipitation in EICP. The paper also presents the assessment and estimation of kinetic parameters, such as the maximal reaction velocity (${\mathrm{V}}_{\max }$) and the Michaelis constant (${\mathrm{K}}_{\mathrm{m}}$), that are associated with applications in civil and geotechnical engineering. Various models for evaluating the kinetic reactions in EICP are presented and discussed, taking into account the influence of pH, temperature and inhibitors. It is shown that a good understanding of the kinetic properties of the urease enzyme can be useful in the development, optimisation and prediction of the rate of ${\mathrm{CaCO}}_3$ precipitation in EICP.

The overall effectiveness of bio-cementation techniques such as microbial-induced carbonate precipitation (MICP) or enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) can be different due to different sources of urease enzyme and treatment approach used. This paper compares the behaviour of oven-dried MICP and EICP-treated sand from macro- and micro-mechanical point of view with the number of treatment cycles and average calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) content used as a comparison basis. The results indicate that in both processes, the calcium carbonate content increased with the number of treatment cycles and led to an improvement in strength (unconfined compressive and splitting tensile strength) and stiffness. For similar average calcium carbonate content, EICP-treated samples showed significantly higher splitting tensile strength (compared to MICP) even though a slightly smaller amount of precipitates were observed at particle contacts through scanning electron microscopy. This indicates, besides the average calcium carbonate content, its distribution along the height of the sample is likely to have a significant contribution towards the strength. X-ray powder diffraction and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyses confirmed that precipitated calcium carbonate in both types of treatments were mainly calcite crystals with minor traces of aragonite.

Lightweight structures built on expansive soils are susceptible to damage caused by soil movement. Financial losses resulting from the improper design of structures on expansive soils can be significant. The interactions and failure mechanisms of different geotechnical structures constructed on such soils differ depending on the structure type, site characteristics, and climatic conditions, as the behaviour of expansive soils is influenced by moisture variations. Therefore, the performance of different geotechnical structures (e.g., lightweight footings for residential buildings) is expected to be adversely affected by climate change (especially rainfall and temperature change), as geotechnical structures are often designed to have a service life of 50–100 years. Some structures may even fail if the effect of climate change is not considered in the present design. This review aims to provide insights into problems associated with expansive soils that trigger the failure of lightweight structures, including current investigations and industry practices. This review recognises that although the soil moisture conditions govern expansive soil behaviour, limited studies have incorporated the effect of future climate changes. In addition, this review identifies the need to improve the current Australian design practice for residential footings through the inclusion of more site-specific investigations and expected climate changes.

Enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) is a bio-cementation technique and a sustainable method of ground improvement. This study examines the influence of the concentrations of substrates [S ₀] and enzymes [E ₀] as well as enzyme activity (A _E) on the calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) precipitation ratio (PR) using 130 test-tube experiments. It was found that the effect of enzyme concentration and activity on PR can be explained using a normalisation of [E _s] = [E ₀] × A _E, where [E _s] is the adjusted enzyme concentration. PR increased non-linearly with increasing [E _s]/[S ₀] and reached 100% at a threshold [E _s]/[S ₀] value of approximately 20 kU/mol. An exponential function was developed that could capture the relationship between PR and [E _s]/[S ₀] with reasonable accuracy. This observation was further evaluated with data from the literature consisting of a further 100 test-tube experiments. EICP solutions consisting of [E _s]/[S ₀] = 20 kU/mol were found to be optimum for soil treatment. The established function was later extended to predict strength gain as measured by the unconfined compressive strength (UCS) and the splitting tensile strength (STS) for EICP-treated soils and could predict the strength gain (UCS/STS) with reasonable accuracy. Results from scanning electron microscopy images, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray powder diffraction showed that the precipitated calcium carbonate in test tubes and treated soil was mostly calcite crystals with different morphologies, possibly due to the level of purity of the urease enzyme used.

This paper presents modelling of the consolidation of foundation soil under a wide embankment constructed over soft soil. An elastic–viscoplastic (EVP) constitutive model is used to represent the foundation soil for the coupled finite element analysis (FEA). A unit-cell analysis is carried out to capture the maximum settlement and the development of excess pore-water pressure with time below the centreline of the embankment for a long period (9 years). A new function for capturing the varying nature of the creep or secondary compression coefficient is proposed and used in association with the EVP model. The input material parameters for this study were determined from extensive laboratory experiments except for the equivalent horizontal permeability, which was systematically estimated by using vertical permeability data obtained from one-dimensional consolidation tests and by back-analysing the first 12 months of field settlement data. Comparisons are made among the predictions obtained adopting an elastoplastic modified Cam clay model and the EVP model with constant and varying creep coefficients for the foundation soil and the corresponding field data. The predictions with the EVP model are found to be better than those with the elastoplastic model and the use of a varying creep coefficient for the EVP model seems to further improve its predicting ability.