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Science of The Total Environment

Volumen 917, De 20 De Marzo De 2024, 170445

Revisión

Una revisión de la biomineralización en la curación de

hormigón: Mecanismo, la biodiversidad y la aplicación de
b un Zhang Junjie enlaces de Autor abrir panel superposición, Jixin Deng b, Yang Él una, Jiahui Wu una, Marta Filipa Simões una d, Bo Liu b,
Yunjian Li f, Shengen Zhang b , André Antunes una d e

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https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170445
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Highlights

• Using biomineralization to prepare self-healing concrete is a green and low-

carbon solution.

• Controlled and induced microbial mineralization mechanisms are summarized.

• The biodiversity and settings of microorganisms in healing concrete are

discussed.

• Microbially induced calcite precipitation is a sustainable technology that can

repair the concrete.

Abstract

Concrete is the main ingredient in construction, but it inevitably fractures during its service life, requiring a large
amount of cement and aggregate for maintenance. Concrete healing through biomineralization can repair cracks and
improve the durability of concrete, which is conducive to saving raw materials and reducing carbon emissions. This
paper reviews the biodiversity of microorganisms capable of precipitating mineralization to repair the concrete and
their mineralization ability under different conditions. To better understand the mass transfer process of precipitates,
two biomineralization mechanisms, microbially-controlled mineralization and microbially-induced mineralization,
have been briefly described. The application of microorganisms in the field of healing concrete, comprising passive
healing and intrinsic healing, is discussed. The key insight on the interaction between cementitious materials and
microorganisms is the main approach for developing novel self-healing concrete in the future to improve the corrosion
resistance of concrete. At the same time, the limitations and challenges are also pointed out.

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Introduction

Concrete is a lossy multiphase composite material formed by complex chemical changes in cementitious materials,
aggregates, and water (Liu et al., 2023). It is the most widely used human-made material in existence and second only
to water as the most consumed resource on Earth; its annual consumption exceeds 12 billion tons (Dobiszewska et al.,
2023) and is projected to rise to 25 billion tons by 2050 (Chan et al., 2020).

Despite this increasing demand and near-ubiquity, the use and production of concrete is not hassle-free. A large
number of engineering practices and experiments, has shown that cracking is an inherent property of concrete, caused
by small defects during the solidification process and is inevitable (Wei et al., 2023). The causes of concrete cracks are
extremely complex but are usually classified as either structural cracks caused by external loads (load cracks), or non-
structural cracks caused by concrete deformation induced by factors such as temperature and humidity (Zhang and
Zhu, 2023; Li et al., 2023). Typically, cracking can result from plastic-, autogenous-, or drying-shrinkage, deformation
caused by heat evolution of hydration, or creep and expansion, all of which serious affect concrete's mechanical
properties and have a negative impact on its durability and service life (Pokorný et al., 2022; Chinnu et al., 2021; Qian
et al., 2021a; Yuan et al., 2023). Unfortunately, the production of concrete is also associated with serious environmental
problems, including pollution, resource consumption, and most worryingly, CO2 emissions (it is responsible for ca. 8 %
of total global emissions) (Gencel et al., 2022; Hamada et al., 2023). This further strengthen the current emphasis on
looking into ways of producing more sustainable materials and increasing durability of concrete structures (Liu et al.,
2022; Zhang et al., 2023).

From a strictly economic perspective, it is imperative to extend the service life of concrete buildings and structures,
reducing the demand for new materials, and more importantly, lowering the high costs incurred during their
maintenance and repair processes (Liu et al., 2020). According to statistics, the annual expense of maintenance in the
United States ranges from 1.8 to 2.1 billion USD (Bhaskar et al., 2017), while the cost related to concrete repair in
Europe is 130–184 €/m3 (Silva et al., 2015; Del Vecchio et al., 2020).
When cracks are discovered, they can be repaired using similar cementitious materials, but this artificial repair method
cannot completely repair cracks of reduced size or those reaching deeper into the material (Tang et al., 2023).
Furthermore, for structures that are continuously in service (e.g., high-speed railways or bridges), cracks cannot be
detected in a timely manner, posing great safety hazards (Huynh and Haick, 2016). There is a significant amount of
research on concrete crack repair methods making use of e.g., grooving, epoxy resins, microcapsules, shape memory
alloys, or mineral admixtures (Fan et al., 2023). However, none of them can achieve intelligent or automatic repair of
concrete cracks.

The capability of several microorganisms to participate in chemical reactions and precipitate minerals through cellular
structures or secreted enzymes is well attested (Shrestha et al., 2022; Xu et al., 2020). Inspired by this, several studies
have researched the use of a microbial-based approach to repair materials such as concrete. Microbial mineralization-
based remediation technology has become a research hotspot in the field of concrete repair and protection due to its
low viscosity, controllable reaction speed, high permeability, adjustable adhesive strength, simple construction, green
and efficient characteristics (Xiao et al., 2022). After microbial remediation, the porosity of concrete is reduced, and it
has better resistance to water and corrosive media, improving its durability (Joshi et al., 2020; Castro-Alonso et al.,
2019).

Recently, some reviews have studied the self-healing cementitious materials, most of them focus on the preparation
and optimization of self-healing concrete. Nodehi et al. (Nodehi et al., 2022), reviewed the mechanical properties,
physical and durability of bacterial concrete, and more importantly, made an evaluation of the life cycle. Nonetheless,
the interactions and distribution between microbial precipitation products and concrete particles were not provided.
Kordas et al. (Kordas, 2023), introduced the impact of bacterial on the performance of self-healing concrete, but did not
analyze the mechanisms of microbially-controlled mineralization. The survival environment and diversity of bacterial
were also not comprehensively analyzed. This article reviews the application and incorporation of microbes in
concrete, emphasizing the different mechanisms, settings, and species involved, as well as the interaction between
concrete particles following the introduction of bacteria. The preservation of spores, the engineering test and the 3D
numerical models of the microbial cementation are also summarized.

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Section snippets

Microbial mineralization mechanisms

The mechanism of microbial induced carbonate precipitation reaction is closely related to the metabolism of the
microorganisms associated with it, involving complex ion exchange and mass transfer processes. According to the
degree to which microorganisms regulate carbonate mineralization reactions, they can be separated into controlled
and induced microbial mineralization mechanisms (W. Li et al., 2017).…

Microorganisms in healing concrete: biodiversity and settings

At present, microorganisms employed in healing concrete can be roughly divided into four categories, based on the
enzymes or metabolic pathways used for biogenic carbonate formation (Espitia Nery et al., 2019): ureolysis, aerobic
respiration, CO2 fixation (via carbonic anhydrase), and nitrate reduction.…

Microorganisms in healing concrete: applications

Microorganisms can be used in different aspects of healing concrete, both passive healing, as part of crack filling repair
or surface coating protection, or self-healing, as part of intrinsic healing.…

Resistance to chloride or sulfate attack

The improvement of impermeability in concrete can help enhance resistance to chloride and their corrosive effects
(Achal et al., 2013). Microbial carbonate deposition can also improve the durability of concrete while healing cracks. Li
et al. (M. Li et al., 2017) used Bacillus cereus to treat metakaolin-modified cement mortars, and found that it not only
increased the strength of the sample by 27 %, but also reduced the porosity by up to 24 % (7 days) and 31 % (28 days). The
calcium carbonate…

Summary and future perspectives

Carbonates produced by microbial mineralization have a wide range of applications, including biological concrete and
soil remediation. Microorganisms belonging to the phylum Firmicutes are the most commonly used in MICP
applications. Within these, microbes of the Bacillus group are particularly popular, having as advantages the fact that
they are well studied, the presence of many ureolytic species, their overall resilience, and the availability of whole
genome sequence data for many of them.

In …

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Junjie Zhang: Writing – original draft, Investigation, Conceptualization. Jixin Deng: Formal analysis. Yang He: Formal
analysis. Jiahui Wu: Data curation. Marta Filipa Simões: Writing – review & editing. Bo Liu: Funding acquisition.
Yunjian Li: Formal analysis. Shengen Zhang: Project administration, Funding acquisition. André Antunes: Writing –
review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition.…

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.…

Acknowledgements
This work was sponsored by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grants No.
2022YFE0204600, 2021YFC1910504), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 52204413,
U2002212, 52102058, 52204414, 52204412), Macao Young Scholars Program (Grants No. AM2022024), Key R&D
Program of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Grants No. 2021BEG01003, 2020BCE01001), Xijiang Innovation and
Entrepreneurship Team (Grants No. 2017A0109004), Beijing Natural Science Foundation…
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