Microbial method for construction of an aquaculture pond in sand

Abstract

A method to construct an aquaculture pond in sand using microbial biocementation is presented in this paper. The microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation process was used to form a low-permeability layer in sand for the construction of a water pond model in the laboratory. The test results indicated that the permeability of sand was reduced from the order of 10−4 m/s to 10−7 m/s when an average 2·1 kg of calcium (Ca) per m2 of sand surface was precipitated. The bending strengths of the walls and the base of the model pond were in the range of 90–256 kPa. The unconfined compressive strengths for the samples taken from the walls and the base of the pond were in the range of 215–932 kPa.