Armistead, S.J., Smith, C.C. orcid.org/0000-0002-0611-9227 and Staniland, S.S. orcid.org/0000-0001-8995-7172 (2022) Sustainable biopolymer soil stabilization in saline rich, arid conditions : a ‘micro to macro’ approach. Scientific Reports, 12 (1). 2880.
Abstract
Water scarcity in semi-arid/arid regions is driving the use of salt water in mining operations. A consequence of this shift, is the potentially unheeded effect upon Mine Tailing (MT) management. With existing stabilization/solidification methodologies exhibiting vulnerability to MT toxicity and salinity effects, it is essential to explore the scope for more environmentally durable sustainable alternatives under these conditions. Within this study we investigate the effects of salinity (NaCl, 0–2.5 M) and temperatures associated with arid regions (25 °C, 40 °C), on Locust Bean Gum (LB) biopolymer stabilization of MT exemplar and sand (control) soil systems. A cross-disciplinary ‘micro to macro’ pipeline is employed, from a Membrane Enabled Bio-mineral Affinity Screen (MEBAS), to Mineral Binding Characterisation (MBC), leading finally to Geotechnical Verification (GV). As predicted by higher Fe2O3 LB binding affinity in saline in the MEBAS studies, LB with 1.25 M NaCl, results in the greatest soil strength in the MT exemplar after 7 days of curing at 40 °C. Under these most challenging conditions for other soil strengthening systems, an overall UCS peak of 5033 kPa is achieved. MBC shows the critical and direct relationship between Fe2O3-LB in saltwater to be ‘high-affinity’ at the molecular level and ‘high-strength’ achieved at the geotechnical level. This is attributed to biopolymer binding group’s increased availability, with their ‘salting-in’ as NaCl concentrations rises to 1.25 M and then ‘salting-out’ at higher concentrations. This study highlights the potential of biopolymers as robust, sustainable, soil stabilization additives in challenging environments.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Engineering (Sheffield) > Department of Civil and Structural Engineering (Sheffield) The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Chemistry (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Feb 2022 14:25 |
Last Modified: | 28 Feb 2022 14:25 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Nature |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41598-022-06374-6 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:184188 |