Frozen enzyme EICP method for more effective soil improvement

Abstract

Enzyme-induced calcite precipitation (EICP) is one of the emerging soil improvement methods. However, when plant-based enzyme is used, the urease enzyme harvested from plants cannot be stored long. This affects large-scale applications of this method. This paper presents a new method that not only enables urease enzyme to be stored for a long duration, but also improves significantly the effectiveness and efficiency of EICP for soil improvement. In this method, the storage duration of soybean derived urease enzyme is prolonged by storing it at negative 20 degrees. The experimental results indicated that the frozen-stored urease enzyme had an activity of 326% higher than that of fresh enzyme. The shear strength of a fine sand treated using the frozen-stored enzyme is 238.8% higher than that using a normal EICP method. Thus, the frozen method not only overcomes the enzyme storage problem, but also offers a much-improved EICP method. The reasons for the higher urease activity and improved strength enhancement are also explained in this paper.