Characterization of bacteria isolated from palaeoproterozoic metasediments for sequestration of carbon dioxide and formation of calcium carbonate

A Study on Bio-Stabilisation of Sub-Standard Soil by Indigenous Soil Urease-Producing Bacteria

Sub-standard soils are of great concern worldwide due to diverse economic losses and the possibility of severe environmental hazards ranging from catastrophic landslides, building collapse, and erosion to loss of lives and properties. This study explored the potential of urease-producing bacteria, <i>Bacillus cereus</i> and <i>Bacillus paramycoides</i>, to stabilise sub-standard soil bio-stabilisation. The maximum urease activity measured by <i>B. cereus</i> and <i>B. paramycoides</i> was 665 U/mL and 620 U/mL, respectively. <i>B. cereus</i> and <i>B. paramycoides</i> precipitated 943 ± 57 mg/L and 793 ± 51 mg/L of CaCO₃ at an optical density (425 nm) of 1.01 and 1.09 and pH 8.83 and 8.59, respectively, after 96 hours of incubation. SEM microstructural analysis of the precipitated CaCO₃ revealed crystals of various sizes (2.0–23.0 µm) with different morphologies. XRD analysis confirmed that the precipitated CaCO₃ comprised calcite and aragonite crystals. SEM analysis of the microstructure of organic and sandy clay soils treated with <i>B. cereus</i> and <i>B. paramycoides</i> showed the formation of bio-precipitated calcium carbonate deposits on the soil particles (biocementing soil grains), with <i>B. cereus</i> precipitating more CaCO₃ crystals with a better biocementing effect compared to <i>B. paramycoides</i>. Overall, the experimental results attributed CaCO₃ formation to bacterial-associated processes, suggesting that soil ureolytic bacteria are potentially useful to stabilise sub-standard soil.

Role of carbon-dioxide sequestering bacteria for clean air environment and prospective production of biomaterials: a sustainable approach

The increase in demand of fossil fuel uses for developmental activity and manufacturing of goods have resulted a huge emission of global warming gases (GWGs) in the atmosphere. Among all GWGs, CO₂ is the major contributor that inevitably causes global warming and climate change. Mitigation strategies like biological CO₂ capture through sequestration and their storage into biological organic form are used to minimize the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ with the goal to control climate change. Since increasing atmospheric CO₂ level supports microbial growth and productivity thus microbial-based CO₂ sequestration has remarkable advantages as compared to plant-based sequestration. This review focuses on CO₂ sequestration mechanism in bacteria through different carbon fixation pathways, involved enzymes, their role in calcite, and other environmentally friendly biomaterials such as biofuel, bioplastic, and biosurfactant.

Biodiesel production from transesterification of Serratia sp. ISTD04 lipids using immobilised lipase on biocomposite materials of biomineralized products of carbon dioxide sequestrating bacterium

Production of biodiesel from lipids of Serratia sp. ISTD04 by lipase of Pseudomonas sp. ISTPL3 immobilised on biocomposite materials to increase the enzyme stability and reusability was studied. Lipase extracted, partially purifiedand immobilized onto activated biochar, impregnated with calcite obtained from biomineralization-based conversion of CO₂ from ISTD04, and bioactive ceramics materials, Na₂Ca₂Si₃O₉ prepared by chemical process. The composition, structure and texture of biocomposite materials determined by SEM and EDS methods. The composition of synthesized biodiesel was determined by GC-MS. The results imply that the immobilized lipase on activated biochar impregnated with calcite gave the maximum yield of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME:97.41%) followed by immobilized lipase on biochar (FAME:94.91), immobilized lipase on glass-ceramic (FAME:91.50%) and NaOH (FAME:85.63%). The reusability of lipase immobilized on activated biochar impregnated with calcite retained 75.11%and 50% catalytic activity after 5 and 10 cycles of transesterification reaction, respectively.

Development of an Innovative Urease-Aided Self-Healing Dental Composite

Dental restorative materials suffer from major drawbacks, namely fracture and shrinkage, which result in failure and require restoration and replacement. There are different methods to address these issues, such as increasing the filler load or changing the resin matrix of the composite. In the present work, we introduce a new viable process to heal the generated cracks with the aid of urease enzyme. In this system, urease breaks down the salivary urea which later binds with calcium to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3). The formation of insoluble CaCO3 fills any resultant fracture or shrinkage from the dental composure hardening step. The healing process and the formation of CaCO3 within dental composites were successfully confirmed by optical microscope, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) methods. This research demonstrates a new protocol to increase the service life of dental restoration composites in the near future.

Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation: a widespread phenomenon in the biological world

Biodeposition of minerals is a widespread phenomenon in the biological world and is mediated by bacteria, fungi, protists, and plants. Calcium carbonate is one of those minerals that naturally precipitate as a by-product of microbial metabolic activities. Over recent years, microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been proposed as a potent solution to address many environmental and engineering issues. However, for being a viable alternative to conventional techniques as well as being financially and industrially competitive, various challenges need to be overcome. In this review, the detailed metabolic pathways, including ammonification of amino acids, dissimilatory reduction of nitrate, and urea degradation (ureolysis), along with the potent bacteria and the favorable conditions for precipitation of calcium carbonate, are explained. Moreover, this review highlights the potential environmental and engineering applications of MICP, including restoration of stones and concrete, improvement of soil properties, sand consolidation, bioremediation of contaminants, and carbon dioxide sequestration. The key research and development questions necessary for near future large-scale applications of this innovative technology are also discussed.

Sequestration and utilization of carbon dioxide by chemical and biological methods for biofuels and biomaterials by chemoautotrophs: Opportunities and challenges

To meet the CO₂ emission reduction targets, carbon dioxide capture and utilization (CCU) comes as an evolve technology. CCU concept is turning into a feedstock and technologies have been developed for transformation of CO₂ into useful organic products. At industrial scale, utilization of CO₂ as raw material is not much significant as compare to its abundance. Mechanisms in nature have evolved for carbon concentration, fixation and utilization. Assimilation and subsequent conversion of CO₂ into complex molecules are performed by the photosynthetic and chemolithotrophic organisms. In the last three decades, substantial research is carry out to discover chemical and biological conversion of CO₂ in various synthetic and biological materials, such as carboxylic acids, esters, lactones, polymer biodiesel, bio-plastics, bio-alcohols, exopolysaccharides. This review presents an over view of catalytic transformation of CO₂ into biofuels and biomaterials by chemical and biological methods.

Characterization of leaf waste based biochar for cost effective hydrogen sulphide removal from biogas

Installation of decentralized units for biogas production along with indigenous upgradation systems can be an effective approach to meet growing energy demands of the rural population. Therefore, readily available leaf waste was used to prepare biochar at different temperatures and employed for H₂S removal from biogas produced via anaerobic digestion plant. It is found that biochar prepared via carbonization of leaf waste at 400 °C effectively removes 84.2% H₂S (from 1254 ppm to 201 ppm) from raw biogas for 25 min in a continuous adsorption tower. Subsequently, leaf waste biochar compositional, textural and morphological properties before and after H₂S adsorption have been analyzed using proximate analysis, CHNS, BET surface area, FTIR, XRD, and SEM-EDX. It is found that BET surface area, pore size, and textural properties of leaf waste biochar plays a crucial role in H₂S removal from the biogas.

Characterization of carbon dioxide concentrating chemolithotrophic bacterium Serratia sp. ISTD04 for production of biodiesel

Proteomics and metabolomics analysis has become a powerful tool for characterization of microbial ability for fixation of Carbon dioxide. Bacterial community of palaeoproterozoic metasediments was enriched in the shake flask culture in the presence of NaHCO₃. One of the isolate showed resistance to NaHCO₃ (100mM) and was identified as Serratia sp. ISTD04 by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. Carbon dioxide fixing ability of the bacterium was established by carbonic anhydrase enzyme assay along with proteomic analysis by LC-MS/MS. In proteomic analysis 96 proteins were identified out of these 6 protein involved in carbon dioxide fixation, 11 in fatty acid metabolism, indicating the carbon dioxide fixing potency of bacterium along with production of biofuel. GC-MS analysis revealed that hydrocarbons and FAMEs produced by bacteria within the range of C₁₃-C₂₄ and C₁₁-C₁₉ respectively. Presence of 59% saturated and 41% unsaturated organic compounds, make it a better fuel composition.

Recycling of carbon dioxide by free air CO2 enriched (FACE) Bacillus sp. SS105 for enhanced production and optimization of biosurfactant

Carbon dioxide utilizing bacterium Bacillus sp. SS105 was isolated from FACE (free air CO₂ enriched) sample. The strain was grown in shake flask containing minimal salt medium with 50mM NaHCO₃ as autotrophic carbon source and molasses as a low cost byproduct for mixotrophic growth. Carbon dioxide sequestration property of Bacillus sp. SS105 was determined by enzyme assay of carbonic anhydrase and ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RuBisCO). Along with CO₂ sequestration this strain produced biosurfactant and its characterization by FTIR and ¹H NMR indicated lipopeptide nature. Optimization of process parameter along with nutrient sources for higher biosurfactant production was done by Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Under optimized conditions, the yield of biosurfactant and biomass was 2.65 and 2.78gL^-1 respectively. The study revealed simultaneous CO₂ sequestration and biosurfactant production by Bacillus sp. SS105.

Bacterial Community Dynamics and Biocement Formation during Stimulation and Augmentation: Implications for Soil Consolidation

Microbially-induced CaCO₃ precipitation (MICP) is a naturally occurring process wherein durable carbonates are formed as a result of microbial metabolic activities. In recent years, MICP technology has been widely harnessed for applications in civil engineering wherein synthesis of calcium carbonate crystals occurs at ambient temperature paving way for low energy biocement. MICP using pure urease (UA) and carbonic anhydrase (CA) producing bacteria has been promising in laboratory conditions. In the current study we enriched ureolytic and carbonic anhydrase communities in calcareous soil under biostimulation and bioaugmentation conditions and investigated the effect of microbial dynamics on carbonate precipitation, calcium carbonate polymorph selection and consolidation of biological sand column under nutrient limited and rich conditions. All treatments for stimulation and augmentation led to significant changes in the composition of indigenous bacterial population. Biostimulation as well as augmentation through the UA route was found to be faster and more effective compared to the CA route in terms of extracellular enzyme production and carbonate precipitation. Synergistic role of augmented cultures along with indigenous communities was recorded via both the routes of UA and CA as more effective calcification was seen in case of augmentation compared to stimulation. The survival of supplemented isolates in presence of indigenous bacterial communities was confirmed through sequencing of total diversity and it was seen that both UA and CA isolate had the potential to survive along with native communities under high nutrient conditions. Nutrient conditions played significant role in determining calcium carbonate polymorph fate as calcitic crystals dominated under high carbon supplementation. Finally, the consolidation of sand columns via stimulation and augmentation was successfully achieved through both UA and CA route under high nutrient conditions but higher consolidation in short time period was noticed in UA route. The study reports that based upon the organic carbon content in native soils, stimulation can be favored at sites with high organic carbon content while augmentation with repeated injections of nutrients can be applied on poor nutrient soils via different enrichment routes of microbial metabolism.

Reduction and biofixation of carbon dioxide in palm oil mill effluent using developed microbial granules containing photosynthetic pigments

The developed microbial granules containing photosynthetic pigments had successfully achieved approximately 18-21% of carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal in POME for one complete SBR cycle. Also, the granules had reached CO₂ removal at 15-29% within 24h and removal of 25% after 5 days. Both results were inconsistent possibly due to the slow mass transfer rate of CO₂ from gas to liquid as well as the simultaneous effect of CO₂ production and respiration among the microbes. Furthermore, results showed the removal of CO₂ from air increases proportionally with the CO₂ removed in liquid. The CO₂ biofixation of granules attained was approximately 0.23g/L/day for a week. Using the regression model, the removal of CO₂ between liquid and gas, CO₂ biofixation rate were highly correlated with the treatment time. A statistically significant relationship was obtained between CO₂ concentration in liquid, biomass productivity and treatment time for the CO₂ biofixation rate of the granules.

Genome Sequence of Carbon Dioxide-Sequestering Serratia sp. Strain ISTD04 Isolated from Marble Mining Rocks

The Serratia sp. strain ISTD04 has been identified as a carbon dioxide (CO₂)-sequestering bacterium isolated from marble mining rocks in the Umra area, Rajasthan, India. This strain grows chemolithotrophically on media that contain sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO₃) as the sole carbon source. Here, we report the genome sequence of 5.07 Mb Serratia sp. ISTD04.

Carbonate Mineral Formation under the Influence of Limestone-Colonizing Actinobacteria: Morphology and Polymorphism

Microorganisms and their biomineralization processes are widespread in almost every environment on earth. In this work, Streptomyces luteogriseus DHS C014, a dominant lithophilous actinobacteria isolated from microbial mats on limestone rocks, was used to investigate its potential biomineralization to allow a better understanding of bacterial contributions to carbonate mineralization in nature. The ammonium carbonate free-drift method was used with mycelium pellets, culture supernatant, and spent culture of the strain. Mineralogical analyses showed that hexagonal prism calcite was only observed in the sub-surfaces of the mycelium pellets, which is a novel morphology mediated by microbes. Hemispheroidal vaterite appeared in the presence of spent culture, mainly because of the effects of soluble microbial products (SMP) during mineralization. When using the culture supernatant, doughnut-like vaterite was favored by actinobacterial mycelia, which has not yet been captured in previous studies. Our analyses suggested that the effects of mycelium pellets as a molecular template almost gained an advantage over SMP both in crystal nucleation and growth, having nothing to do with biological activity. It is thereby convinced that lithophilous actinobacteria, S. luteogriseus DHS C014, owing to its advantageous genetic metabolism and filamentous structure, showed good biomineralization abilities, maybe it would have geoactive potential for biogenic carbonate in local microenvironments.

Cloning and expression of gamma carbonic anhydrase from Serratia sp. ISTD04 for sequestration of carbon dioxide and formation of calcite

Bacterial strains isolated from marble mines rock and enriched in the chemostat culture with different concentrations of sodium bicarbonate. The enriched consortium had six bacterial isolates. One of bacterium isolate showed carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity by catalyzing the reversible hydration reaction of carbon dioxide to bicarbonate. The bacterium was identified as Serratia sp. by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The carbonic anhydrase gene from Serratia sp. was found to be homologous with gamma carbonic anhydrase. The carbonic anhydrase gene was cloned in PET21b(+) and expressed it in recombinant Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) with His-tag at the C-terminus. The recombinant protein was purified efficiently by using one-step nickel affinity chromatography. Expected size of carbonic anhydrase was approximately 29 kDa in SDS-PAGE gel. Recombinant carbonic anhydrase enzyme was used for biomineralization-based conversion of atmospheric CO2 into valuable calcite minerals. The calcification was confirmed by using XRD, FTIR, EDX and SEM analysis.