Bacterial "Masons" at Work with Wastes for Producing Eco-cement

Industrial waste is now a global concern, causing environmental and economic harm. Industries are rapidly trying to find a solution, searching for optimal ways to manage waste and to change the most common practices, as landfill or incineration. Industrial waste is a very heavy burden for the environment, where a significant proportion of this industrial waste is attributable to construction and demolition waste. To mitigate these threats, a novel biomimetic technology for enzyme-based microbial carbonate precipitation was tested, converting industrial wastes into an ecological product. Within the European Ecocement project (FP7-Grant 282922), a novel eco-cement product was obtained by recovering valuable resources from different industries such as the dairy industry, cement industry and poultry growing industry. The eco-cement product involves the microbial carbonate precipitation process, via urea hydrolysis, in the presence of Sporosarcina pasteurii, a common soil ureolytic bacterium. This paper presented the general concept of the project and the main obtained results.