Experimental study on macro-micro effectiveness of Yellow River silt solidified by using soybean-induced carbonate precipitation (SICP) technology

For a long time, the sediment problem has been regarded as the most concerning issue for the Yellow River in China. Meanwhile, the research on the resource utilization of Yellow River silt has been highly valued. In this paper, soybean-induced carbonate precipitation (SICP) technology was adopted to catalyze the formation of calcium carbonate with the view of solidifying the Yellow River silt. The sensitivity of unconfined compressive strength (UCS) of solidified Yellow River silt sample to various factors such as cementation solution concentration C, grouting times N, and relative density Dr was analyzed. The influence of different bio-treatment plans considering cementation solution concentration C, grouting times N on the calcium carbonate content of Yellow River silt sample with a certain relative density was characterized. Furthermore, loading failure modes of Yellow River silt cured with different cementation solution concentration C were demonstrated. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were used to illustrate the microscopic mechanism of biomineralization technology. The results of this study show that soybean-induced carbonate precipitation method can provide a technical guarantee for the resource utilization of the Yellow River silt.