Bio-mediated treatment of organic soil with fungal strain Penicillium Chrysogenum and wood fly ash

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Organic soil is one of the vulnerable kinds of soil found in Canada which occupies almost 18% of its total landmass. Poor shear strength and compressibility properties and high creep behaviour are some of the characteristics of such soil. Construction works done above such soil lead to the failure of those structures. Therefore, they must be improved before performing any developmental works above them. The most common approach to improving those soils is the chemical treatment using cement and other chemical compounds. The hike in carbon emission (i.e., about 5% of total carbon emissions), climate change, and wildfires with the production of cement and other conventional cementing compounds have increased the necessity of exploring alternative materials. Bio geotechnics is an evolving environmentally friendly technology that employs various microorganisms to stabilize the soil. The following research targets to stabilize such problematic soil with the help of bio cementation technique using a type of fungi called Penicillium Chrysogenum and wood fly ash (a by-product of the Canadian paper and pulp industry). There are mainly two types of bio cementation processes i.e., bacterial, and fungal among which the fungal bio cementation is less explored. Various bench-scale experiments will be conducted to check the possibility of forming a biocomposite material by blending the microbe with fly ash and organic soil. Also, some trial bench scales replicating the field conditions will be performed. The biocomposite material formed is expected to have better uniformity and distribution resulting in higher mechanical behaviour, better compressibility behaviour and applicability to a larger area compared to bacterial bio cementation. Also, the addition of wood fly ash is expected to reduce the cycles of treatment reducing the amount of ammonium released to the environment. Success of the project will lead to application of the technology for the construction of foundations, highways and other structures constructed on problematic organic soils in Canada.