IIT Madras develops structured model for bacteria-based cement production

The product has the potential to reduce CO2 emissions

The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras Researchers have developed a structured model to help in the production of bio-cement, which is an alternative sustainable process for cementation.

It has the potential to reduce Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions in the future. Called ‘Microbially Induced Calcite Precipitation’ (MICP), this process is used to make bio-cement using bacteria (Ex: S pasteurii). The Research was focused to gain better understanding of the MICP process with a long term aim to scale up manufacturing of Bio-Cement.

During the UN Climate Change Conference held at Glasgow last year, around 140 countries pledged to reduce carbon-di-oxide emission and achieve net-zero emissions. Cement manufacturing is among the largest CO2-producing industries. It is vital to develop alternative sustainable processes for manufacturing cement to reduce CO2 emissions and Bio-Cement can be a major step in this direction, a statement said.

The IIT Madras Research team was led by G. K. Suraishkumar, Department of Biotechnology; Nirav Bhatt, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology; and Subasree Sridhar, Research Scholar, IIT Madras. The findings of their research were published in the reputed peer-reviewed Biochemical Engineering Journal.

The researchers studied the MICP process using the bacteria, S. pasteurii,  proposed and developed a structured model for the overall ureolysis processes (uptake and breaking of urea using bacteria) to scale up the MICP process, which can be an alternative to manufacture cement. The advantages of bio cement include energy efficiency as it requires temperatures in the range of 30 to 40 degree Celsius whereas conventional cement production requires above 900 degress Celsius.