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Bacterial concrete: A review

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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET)
Volume 8, Issue 2, February 2017, pp. 588–594 Article ID: IJCIET_08_02_061
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=2
ISSN Print: 0976-6308 and ISSN Online: 0976-6316

© IAEME Publication Scopus Indexed

BACTERIAL CONCRETE: A REVIEW

Pappupreethi K, RajishaVelluva Ammakunnoth
U.G Student, Department of Civil Engineering
Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

P. Magudeaswaran
Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering,
Sri Ramakrishna Institute of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT
Concrete is the foremost building material broadly used in building construction, but cracks in
concrete are inevitable and are one of the inherent weakness of concrete. The major downside of
concrete is its low tensile strength due to which micro crack occurs when the load applied is more
than its limit and this paves way for the seepage of water and other salts. This initiates corrosion and
makes the whole structure vulnerable and leads to the failure of structure. To remediate this type of
failure due to cracks and fissures, an approach of using bio mineralisation in concrete has evolved
in recent years. In this method, of enhancing the performance of concrete, the calcite precipitating
spore forming bacteria is introduced into concrete. When water enters through the cracks, it reacts
with bacteria and forms precipitates of calcium carbonate, as a by product, which fills the cracks and
makes crack free concrete. This type of concrete prepared with bacteria is called as bacterial
concrete. Thus, this paper is an attempt to define bacterial concrete, types and classification of micro
organisms, working of bio concrete as a repair material, advantages and disadvantages of bacterial
concrete and applications by literature review are discussed.
Key words: Concrete, Bio Mineralisation, Calcium Carbonate, Bacterial Concrete
Cite This Article: Pappupreethi K, RajishaVelluva Ammakunnoth and P. Magudeaswaran, Bacterial
Concrete: A Review. International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology, 8(2), 2017, pp.
588–594.
http://www.iaeme.com/IJCIET/issues.asp?JType=IJCIET&VType=8&IType=2

1. INTRODUCTION
Cement concrete is one of the most widely used material for construction works in the field of civil
engineering. This is mainly due to low cost of materials and construction, for concrete structures as well as
low cost of maintenance. Concrete has a large load bearing capacity for compression load, but the material
is weak in tension. Because of this steel reinforcement is provided and the steel bars take over the load when
the concrete cracks in tension. However, the cracks in the concrete pose a problem [9].Due to reasons like
freeze-thaw reactions, shrinkage, low tensile strength of concrete etc, cracks occur during the process of
concrete hardening and this ultimately leads to weakening of the buildings. If water droplets enter into the

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 Bacterial Concrete: A Review

concrete structure, due to lack of permeability then it can damage the steel reinforcement present in the
concrete member.
When this phenomenon occurs, the strength of the concrete decreases and which results in the decay of
structure [10]. Synthetic materials like epoxies are used to remediate, but they are costly, not compatible and
need constant maintenance. Using chemicals is also causing damage to the environment. The need for an
environment friendly and effective alternate crack remediation technique leads to the development of using
the bio mineralization method in concrete [8].
Here we are incorporating calcite precipitating bacteria to concrete in certain concentrations so that the
bacteria will precipitate calcium carbonate when it comes in contact with water and this precipitate will heal
the cracks. Micro biologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP) is the process behind bio mineralization.
The basic principle in the process is that the microbial urease, hydrolyzes urea, to produce ammonia and
carbon dioxide and the ammonia released in surroundings subsequently increases the pH, leading to
accumulation of insoluble calcium carbonate [8].
Thus, this self-healing system can achieve a tremendous cost reduction in terms of health monitoring,
damage detection and maintenance of concrete structures, assuring a safe service life of the structure.

1.1. Bacteria
Bacteria are relatively simple, single celled organisms. These are classified based on three categories, namely,
based on shape, gram stain and oxygen demand.

Figure 1 Classification of bacteria

Various types of bacteria used in construction area, from literature review, are as follows,

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 Pappupreethi K, RajishaVelluva Ammakunnoth and P. Magudeaswaran

2. WORKING OF BIO CONCRETE AS A REPAIR MATERIAL

Self healing concrete is a product that will biologically produce limestone to heal cracks that appear on the
surface of concrete structures. Specially selected types of bacteria genus, bacillus, along with calcium based
nutrient known as calcium lactate and nitrogen and phosphorous are added to the ingredients of the concrete
when it is being mixed. These self healing agents can lie dormant within the concrete for up to 200 years.
However, when a concrete structure is damaged and water starts to seep through the cracks that appear in the
concrete, the spores of the bacteria, germinate on contact with water and nutrients. Having been activated,
the bacteria start to feed on the calcium lactate. As the bacteria feeds oxygen is consumed and the soluble
calcium lactate is converted to insoluble limestone. The limestone solidifies on the cracked surface, thereby
sealing it up [6]. As the oxygen is consumed by bacteria in the process, it prevents corrosion of the embedded
reinforcement and thus the durability of the steel increases [1]
On the surface of control concrete, Calcium Carbonate will be formed due to the reaction of CO2 present
with Calcium Hydroxide present in the concrete matrix according to the following reaction:
CO2 + Ca(OH)2 → CaCO3 + H2O (1)
As Ca(OH)2 is a soluble mineral, it gets dissolved in entering water and diffuse out of the crack in the
form of leaching. The self-healing process in bacteria incorporated concrete is much more efficient due to
the active metabolic conversion of Calcium nutrients by the bacteria present in concrete: [2]
Ca(C3H5O2)2 + 7O2 → CaCO3 + 5CO2 + 5H2O (2)
Here Calcium Carbonate is produced directly due to microbial metabolic process and also indirectly due
to autogeneous healing. This process results in efficient bacteria-based crack sealing mechanism.

2.1. Chemical Process to Remediate Cracks

Various bacteria and biotic factors contribute to this in different ways. In the process of calcium carbonate
precipitation, the key factors governing the process are [1],
• Calcium concentration
• Concentration of dissolved inorganic carbon
• The pH and
• the availability of nucleation sites
Thus concrete crack remediation technique by Microbiologically Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP)
using environment friendly bacteria to precipitate calcite (CaCO3) during its microbial activities under
prevailing Indian conditions is investigated to formulate a strategy to present Bacterial Concrete as best
innovative self healing method in concrete structures [8]

3. LITERATURE REVIEW
SakinaNajmuddinSaifee et .al1 published a paper on Critical appraisal on Bacterial Concrete. In this paper
they discussed about the different types of bacteria and their applications. The bacterial concrete is very much
useful in increasing the durability of cemetous materials, repair of limestone monuments , sealing of concrete
cracks to highly durable cracks etc.It also useful for construction of low cost durable roads , high strength
buildings with more bearing capacity, erosion prevention of loose sands and low cost durable houses. They
have also briefed about the working principle of bacterial concrete as a repair material. It was also observed
in the study that the metabolic activities in the microorganisms taking place inside the concrete results into
increasing the overall performance of concrete including its compressive strength. This study also explains
the chemical process to remediate cracks.

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 Bacterial Concrete: A Review

Meera C M and Dr Subha V2, have published a paper on Strength And Durability assessment Of Bacteria
Based Self-Healing Concrete. In this paper they have discussed about the effect of Bacillus subtilis JC3 on
the strength and durability of concrete. They used cubes of sizes 150mm x 150mm x 150mm and cylinders
with a diameter of 100mm and a height of 200mm with and without addition of micro organisms, of M20
grade concrete. For strength assessments, cubes were tested for different bacterial concentrations at 7 days
and 28 days and cylinders were tested for split tensile strength at 28 days. It was observed that the
compressive strength of concrete showed significant increase by 42% for cell concentration of 105 of mixing
water. And also, with the addition of bacteria there is a significant increase in the tensile strength by 63% for
a bacteria concentration of 105cells/ml at 28 days. For durability assessment, acid durability test, chloride test
and water absorption test were done. From the results it could be inferred that the addition of bacteria prevents
the loss in weight during acid exposure to a certain limit, proving the bacterial concrete to have higher Acid
Attack Factor. The Water Absorption Test, showed a lesser increase in weight of bacteria concrete sample
than control, from which it could be reckoned that the concrete will become less porous due to the formation
of Calcium Carbonate, due to which it resulted in lesser water absorption rate. Chloride test results showed
that the addition of bacteria decreases weight loss, due to Chloride exposure and enhances the Compressive
Strength.
Ravindranatha, N. Kannan, Likhit M. L3,have published a paper on Self-Healing Material Bacterial
Concrete. In this paper a comparison study was made with concrete cubes and beams subjected to
compressive and flexural strength tests with and without the bacterium Bacillus pasteurii. The concrete cubes
and beams were prepared by adding calculated quantity of bacterial solution and they were tested for 7 and
28 day compressive and flexural strengths. It was found that there was high increase in strength and healing
of cracks subjected to loading on the concrete specimens. The microbe proved to be efficient in enhancing
the properties of the concrete by achieving a very high initial strength increase. The calcium carbonate
produced by the bacteria has filled some percentage of void volume thereby making the texture more compact
and resistive to seepage.
A.T.Manikandan1, A.Padmavathi4, have published a paper on An Experimental Investigation on
Improvement of Concrete Serviceability by using Bacterial Mineral Precipitation. In this paper,the bacteria
Bacillussubtilis strain 121 was from Microbial Type Culture Collection and Gene Bank, Chandigarh.
Samples were prepared in sets of three for a water cement ratio of 0.5 by mass for conventional concrete and
a water cement ratio of 0.25 and bacterial culture of 0.25 for bacterial concrete by mass. The cubes were
tested by Non-Destructive Testing and HEICO compression testing machine on the 3rd, 7th and 28th days
after casting. There was an improvement in compressive strength by B. subtilis strain 121 due to deposition
of Calcite (CaCO3) in cement-sand matrix of microbial concrete which remediate the pore structure within
the mortar. The temperature sustainability test of B. subtilis in bacterial concrete was carried out at various
temperatures and found that the B. subtilis was found to be alive at –30 C low temperatures to 700 C high
temperatures. There is increase in compressive strength of the bacterial concrete with B. subtilis bacteria with
microbial calcite precipitation in the crack sample was examined in SEM .The sample showed the presence
of calcite crystals grown all over the surface of the crack and also the presence of B. subtilis bacteria is the
evidence, that suggests microbial remediation properties of bacterial concrete.
Jagadeesha Kumar B G, R Prabhakara and Pushpa H5, published a paper on Effect of Bacterial Calcite
Precipitation on Compressive Strength of Mortar Cubes. This paper describes about the experimental
investigations carried out on mortar cubes which were subjected to bacterial precipitation by different
bacterial strains and influence of bacterial calcite precipitation on the compressive strength of mortar cube
on 7, 14 and 28 days of bacterial treatment. Three bacterial strains Bacillus flexus, isolated from concrete
environment, Bacillus pasturii and Bacillus sphaericus were used. The cubes were immersed in bacterial and
culture medium for above mentioned days with control cubes immersed in water and was tested for
compressive strength. The result indicated that there was an improvement in the compressive strength in the

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 Pappupreethi K, RajishaVelluva Ammakunnoth and P. Magudeaswaran

early strength of cubes which were reduced with time. Among the three strains of bacteria, Cubes treated
with Bacillus flexus, which is not reported as bacteria for calcite precipitation has shown maximum
compressive strength than the other two bacterial strains and control cubes. It was studied that the increase
in compressive strengths is mainly due to consolidation of the pores inside the cement mortar cubes with
micro biologically induced Calcium Carbonate precipitation. The urease activity was determined for all the
bacteria in Urease media by measuring the amount of ammonia released from urea according to the phenol-
hypochlorite assay method. All the three strains of bacteria were tested for urease activity. The change of the
color of the media from yellow to pink indicated that it is urease positive. All the three strains were urease
positive. X-ray diffraction analysis was also carried out to determine chemical composition of the
precipitation that occurred due to bacterial mineralization.
RA. B. Depaaand T. Felix Kala6, have published a paper on Experimental Investigation of Self Healing
Behavior of Concrete using Silica Fume and GGBFS as Mineral Admixtures. In this paper cubes have been
prepared by adding silica fume in percentage of 2.5%, 5%,7.5%, 10%, 12.5% as a binder in addition to adding
cement to concrete and also by replacing 35% and 55% of cement with GGBFS.A conventional mixture
without any admixture is cast for comparing the strength and durability properties of silica fume and GGBFS
concretes. The specimens are first tested for compressive strength at 28 days, and then 70% and 90% of the
compressive load is applied to another set of specimens to generate microcracks for studying the durability
properties of the specimens. The preloaded concrete specimens are tested for compressive strength at 7 and
28 days and sorptivity index tests after 28 days. The concrete mix containing cement replaced with 35%
GGBFS has given maximum compressive strength value. Further when silica fume is added as mineral
admixture, the mix has given maximum strength at 12.5% addition of silica fume.
Chithra P Bai and Shibi Varghese7,have published a paper on an experimental investigation on the strength
properties of fly ash based Bacterial concrete. In this paper, The bacteria Bacillus Subtilis was used for study
with different cell concentrations of 103, 105 and 107 cells/ml for preparing the bacterial concrete. Cement
was partially replaced by 10%, 20% and 30% of fly ash by weight for making the bacterial concrete. Concrete
of grade M30 was prepared and tests such as Compressive strength, Split tensile strength, Flexural strength
and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity were conducted after 28 and 56 days of water curing. For fly ash concrete,
maximum compressive strength, split tensile strength, flexural Strength and Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity values
were obtained for 10% fly ash replacement. For bacterial concrete maximum compressive strength, split
tensile strength, flexural strength, and UPV values were obtained for the bacteria cell concentration of
105cells/ml. The improvement in the strength properties of fly ash concrete is due to the precipitation of
calcium carbonate (CaCO3) inthe micro environment by the bacteria Bacillus Subtilis.
V Srinivasa Reddy, M V SeshagiriRaoand S Sushma8, have published a paper on Feasibility Study on
Bacterial Concrete as an innovative self crack healing system. This paper describes about the effect of
bacterial cell concentration of Bacillus subtilis JC3, on the strength, by determining the compressive strength
of standard cement mortar cubes of different grades, incorporated with various bacterial cell concentrations.
This shows that the Improvement in compressive strength reaches a maximum at about 105/ml cell
concentration. The cost of using microbial concrete compared to conventional concrete which is critical in
determining the economic feasibility of the technology, is also studied. The cost analysis showed an increase
in cost of 2.3 to 3.9 times between microbial concrete and conventional concrete with decrease of grade. And
nutrients such as inexpensive, high protein- containing industrial wastes such as corn steep liquor (CSL) or
lactose mother liquor (LML) effluent from starch industry can also be used, so that overall process cost
reduces dramatically. Precipitation of these crystals inside the gel matrix also enhances the durability of
concrete significantly. Furthermore, this analysis has shown an increase in the cost of production and a
significant decrease in carbon footprint compared to conventional concrete.
MohitGoyal and P. Krishna Chaitanya9 published a paper on Behaviour of Bacterial Concrete as Self
Healing Material. In this paper they have carried out laboratory investigations to compare the different

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 Bacterial Concrete: A Review

parameters of bacterial concrete with ordinary concrete and concrete, in which 70% cement was partially
replaced with 30% of Fly Ash and 30% of GGBS. In this paper, Bacillus pasteurii, is used to prepare M25
concrete. Various tests such as slump flow test, compressive strength, flexural strength and split tensile
strength were conducted for different specimens of, bacterial concentrations of 40ml, 50ml and 60 ml for
each specimen. In order to identify atomic and molecular structure and to check the presence of formation of
calcium carbonate X- Ray diffraction test was conducted. There was significant improvement of compressive
strength by 30% in concrete mix with bacteria and more than 15% in fly ash and 20% in GGBS. It was
observed that bacterial concrete achieves maximum split tensile strength and flexural strength when 40 ml
and 50 ml bacterial solution was used but loses this trend after 14 days with 60ml bacterial solution when
flexural strength test was performed. Also, 50ml bacterial solution proved to be effective in increasing the
split tensile strength, compressive strength and flexural strength of the specimen as compared to 40ml and
60 ml bacterial solution. Also, from the XRD analysis, it is proven that the presence on bacteria is contributing
to CaCO3 production, which has reduced the percentage of air voids, thus, increasing the strength of the
structure considerably.
N. Ganesh Babu and Dr. S. Siddiraju10,has published a paper onan experimental study on strength and
fracture properties of self healing concrete. In this paper they have made an attempt is made to arrest the
cracks in concrete using bacteria and calcium lactate. The percentages of bacteria selected for the study are
3.5% and 5% by weight of cement. In addition, calcium lactate was used at 5% and 10% replacement of
cement by weight. Bacteria produce calcium carbonate crystals which blocks the micro cracks and pores in
the concrete after reacting with calcium lactate. Bacillus pasteurii is used for different bacterial
concentrations for M40 grade of concrete. Various tests such as compressive strength, elastic modulus and
fracture of concrete were analyzed. The cubes of dimensions of 100x100x100 mm were used for compressive
strength test. It was observed that compressive strength for controlled concrete using calcium lactate, at 7
days and 28 days were 19.8 MPa and 40.53 MPa respectively. With the addition of calcium lactate, there is
considerable decrease in compressive strength. Compressive strength of concrete with 5% bacteria was found
to be 49.5 Mpa at 28 days, which is more than controlled concrete. With the addition of calcium lactate at
10% (optimum percentage) and bacteria to concrete, there is considerable increase in compressive strength.
Hence calcium lactate along with 3.5% and 5% bacteria can be used as an effective self healing agent.

4. APPLICATIONS
The use of bacterial concrete in Civil Engineering has become increasingly popular.
• Enhancement in durability of cementious materials to improvement in sand properties
• Repair of limestone monuments
• Sealing of concrete cracks
• Used in construction of low cost durable housing
• Used in construction of low cost durable roads

5. CONCLUSION
The paper describes that due to its self healing abilities, eco-friendly nature, increase in durability etc, it is
better than the conventional technology. It is very effective in increasing the strength and durability of
concrete. It also shows better resistance to drying shrinkage, resistance to acid attack, better sulphate
resistance. Bacterial concrete prepared with admixtures like silica fume, fly ash etc, also gives better strength
and durability. This paper improved our understanding on bacterial concrete. Due to the introduction of
bacteria into concrete there has been increase in the compressive and flexural strength with decrease in
permeability, water absorption and corrosion of reinforcement when compared to conventional concrete.

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 Pappupreethi K, RajishaVelluva Ammakunnoth and P. Magudeaswaran

Thus, bacterial concrete can play a major role in modern construction, which requires precise technologies
for producing high quality structures that will be cost effective and environmentally safe.

REFERENCES
[1] Sakina Najmuddin Saifee, Divya Maheshbhai Lad, Jayesh Rameshbhai Juremalani. Critical appraisal on
Bacterial Concrete, IJRDO-Journal Of Mechanical And Civil Engineering, ISSN: 2456-1479, Volume-1,
Issue-3, March 2015, PP 10-14
[2] Meera C.M, Dr.Subha V. Strength and Durability assessment Of Bacteria Based Self-Healing Concrete.
IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, e-ISSN: 2278-1684 , PP 01-07
[3] Ravindranatha, N. Kannan, Likhit M. L .Self healing material bacterial concrete, International Journal of
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656-659
[4] A.T.Manikandan, A.Padmavathi. An Experimental Investigation on Improvement of Concrete
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[5] Jagadeesha Kumar B G, R Prabhakara, Pushpa H. Effect Of Bacterial Calcite Precipitation On
Compressive Strength Of Mortar Cube, International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology
(IJEAT), ISSN: 2249 – 8958, Volume-2, Issue-3, February 2013,PP 486-491
[6] RA. B. Depaa and T. Felix Kala Experimental Investigation of Self Healing Behavior of Concrete using
Silica Fume and GGBFS as Mineral Admixtures Indian Journal of Science and Technology, Vol 8(36),
DOI: 0.17485/ijst/2015/v8i36/87644, December 2015
[7] Chithra P, BaiShibi Varghese. An experimental investigation on the strength properties of fly ash based
bacterial concrete International Journal of Innovative Research in Advanced Engineering (IJIRAE) ISSN:
2349-2763 Issue 08, Volume 3 (August 2016)
[8] V Srinivasa Reddy, M V SeshagiriRao, S Sushma. Feasibility Study on Bacterial Concrete as an innovative
self crack healing system. International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering and Research, e-ISSN
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[9] Ashish Babarao Gawande, Yash Suneel Khandekar and Ojas Pravin Rahate, Applicability of Concrete
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[10] Abhishek Thakur, Akshay Phogat and Khushpreet Singh, Bacterial Concrete and Effect of Different
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[12] N.GaneshBabu. An experimental study on strength and fracture properties of self healing concrete
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