2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Man-caused erosion and generation of dust are phenomena usually related to civil construction and mining activities of significant economic, societal, environmental, and health-related consequences. Even though fugitive dust is not a traditional civil engineering problem, it has become, in recent years, a societal-civic problem that has got the attention of civil and geotechnical engineering alike, as it can deplete and contaminate already scarce natural resources, such as surface water and groundwater basins. Strategies for dust control and mine tailing stabilization based on naturally occurring or induced chemical or biological processes present a more sustainable alternative to traditional dust control methods, especially those that rely on large volumes of water. Enzymes play a major role in mediating a variety of biochemical processes that are essential to all living organisms and can also be used in engineering for beneficial purposes; for example, control of fugitive dust emissions by enzyme induced carbonate precipitation (EICP). This project attempts to analyze the efficacy of Enzyme Induced Carbonate Precipitation (EICP), a bio-enzyme (urease) mediated dust control method, on selected soil samples under experimental conditions applying techniques routinely used in geotechnical engineering research.
Phoenix College students in BIO 181 (Introductory Biology for Majors I) are introduced to the role the enzyme urease can play in making carbonate precipitation more effective by increasing the rate of precipitation by a factor of 109. Students are then introduced to the problems associated with erosion and dust generation and to how EICP can be harnessed to provide a more sustainable method for controlling dust than conventional methods, highlighting the importance of urease in this process. Students are then asked to list environmental factors that can impact the efficacy of urease in catalyzing EICP, and what experimental design needs to be in place to test that. The project is designed and implemented as a CURE (Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences) in BIO 181 labs, a transfer course for science and engineering majors. All students enrolled in these lab courses execute the project from start to finish with the assistance at all times of the instructor and student mentors. If possible, experts in the topic are invited to the lab to give a brief introduction to the topic and to stress its relevance to the community and to society at large. The experiment expands for 6-8 weeks out of a 16- week semester. Through this project, students gain a better understanding of enzyme activity, bio mediation, applications of bio mediation to environmental problems and geotechnical engineering, interdisciplinary collaboration, engineering design, and the process of science. The project is in collaboration with NSF funded Center for Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (CBBG) at Arizona State University and supported by NSF award 1832543.