Laboratory Study on the Use of Urease-Induced Calcium Carbonate Precipitation for Stabilization of Coal Fly Ash

Abstract

Coal fly ash (FA) dust negatively impacts human health and the environment. This study aimed to prevent wind erosion through the technology of enzyme-induced carbonate precipitation (EICP) to improve the surface stability of FA. In order to investigate the influence of urease activity, salt solution ratio, and polyacrylamide (PAM) concentration on the EICP process, unconfined compressive strength (UCS) test, sieving test, and wind tunnel test was carried out in the laboratory. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also used to analyze the microscopic crystal morphology characteristics of mineralized products. The results showed that the wind erosion rate of the samples treated with EICP reduced significantly (the minimum wind erosion rate is 1.986 mg/(m2·min)) due to the crystal bridge function of CaCO3, while the UCS of these samples increased clearly. Appropriately increasing urease activity in the treatment solution contributed to the increased CaCO3 content and microscopic size. Excess urea concentration had a certain inhibitory effect on urease activity. The addition of PAM provided more nucleation sites for the EICP process and improved the strength of the cementation. These findings suggested that the EICP-PAM was a promising technique for the protection of FA sites from wind erosion.