Carbonate Precipitation through Microbial Activities in Natural Environment, and Their Potential in Biotechnology: A Review

Abstract

Calcium carbonate represents a large portion of carbon reservoir and is used commercially for a variety of applications. Microbial carbonate precipitation, a by-product of microbial activities, plays an important metal coprecipitation and cementation role in natural systems. This natural process occurring in various geological settings can be mimicked and used for a number of biotechnologies, such as metal remediation, carbon sequestration, enhanced oil recovery, and construction restoration. In this study, different metabolic activities leading to calcium carbonate precipitation, their native environment, and potential applications and challenges are reviewed.

Keywords: biotechnology; challenges; metabolisms; microbial carbonate precipitation; natural environment.

Figure 1

Number of articles on the topic of “carbonate precipitation” OR “calcite precipitation” OR “calcification” in the database of Web of Science of all years. The black column represents the search with an additional keyword “microb* OR microorganisms,” and corresponds to the y-axis on the right side. The red column indicates the number of publications found with an additional keyword “technology,” and corresponds to the y-axis on the left showing 75 articles. Among published work, carbonate precipitation induced by photosynthesis, ureolysis, and sulfate reduction are well studied with 1128, 120, and 110 articles, respectively. Technologies of microbial carbonate precipitation are commonly based on photosynthesis and ureolysis, with 13 and 19 articles, respectively.

Figure 2

Nucleation of carbonate crystals on microbial surfaces. (A) Cell wall with negatively charged functional groups, such as carboxyl, phosphate, and amine groups, adsorbs Ca²⁺. Subsequently, carbonates precipitates on the cell surface when carbonate species are available. (B) EPS-containing functional groups trap a large amount of Ca²⁺. After EPS is degraded, high concentration of Ca²⁺ is reached locally and results in the precipitation of calcium carbonate in the presence of carbonate species. In addition, cells with negatively charged surface tend to attach to substrates with positive charges.

Figure 3

Microbial carbonate precipitation induced by different metabolisms.

Figure 4

The proportion of metabolisms that induced microbial carbonate precipitation in each environment.

Figure 5

The application areas of microbial carbonate precipitation, their main metabolisms and comparable environments.

Figure 6

Challenges faced in the real application of microbial carbonate precipitation.