Anaerobic granules based self-healing bioconcrete for wastewater infrastructure

<p dir="ltr">The existence of microcracks in concrete constructions will impair both its strength and durability performance as well as its outward look. Current crack-remediation techniques frequently involve organic synthetic polymers, which are costly, incompatible, and unsightly. These drawbacks have made bioconcrete, an alternate method for enhancing the mechanical and durability qualities of concrete, more popular than organic surface treatments. The bacterial ability of self-healing concrete applications by microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) has been investigated more and more in recent years.</p><p dir="ltr">A majority of the research using the different MICP pathways have achieved considerable crack healing, although two main drawbacks were identified. The first drawback was regarding the MICP pathways. The ureolysis results in the generation of ammonia, which is hazardous to the environment and the concrete matrix. Due to oxygen constraints inside the crack, aerobic respiration is most effective at the crack mouth although there are alkalinity generation issues observed with aerobic respiration. The second drawback was associated with the use of axenic cultures which needed additional protective measures against harsh concrete environment. As a result, these were costly. Moreover, there has been no study that considered self-healing concrete for wastewater infrastructure since concerns with durability or cracking cause a terrible mess in terms of environmental pollution, human resources, the practicality of fixing the crack, and expense. In general, biologically self-healing concrete that is more resilient and sustainable is urgently needed for the construction of wastewater infrastructure.</p>