Ahmad Fahmi

In recent years, the microbial induced calcium carbonate precipitation method (MICP) using the mechanism of urea hydrolysis has been broadly examined for the treatment of rock, sand, mortar, and concrete. Researchers have been studying the addition of microbial solution to mortar or concrete during mixing and later curing in cementation solution or the simultaneous addition of microbial solution and cementation solution to concrete during mixing. In this study, a low-cost microbial solution obtained from ureolytic bacteria cultured in the low-cost corn steep liquor medium is used instead of water to make cement-sand mortar. The results suggest that the 28-day compressive strength of cement-sand mortar samples rose by 65% compared to the control samples and its water absorption decreased roughly by this method, with 1/3 M equimolar urea and calcium chloride solution used as curing solution. Given the low cost of corn steep liquor medium, the microbial technique can be applied to improve the compressive strength and durability of mortar and concrete.