Bacterial Concrete: Applications

Giancarlo Ranalli, an Italian researcher in Pesche, Italy, has already used bacteria to clean the base of Michelangelo's Pietà Rondanini in Milan and another kind of bacteria to remove harmful animal glue from frescos in Pisa. Ramirez also describes the use of forensic DNA techniques to identify burrowing insects in wooden pieces from just minuscule droppings or a tiny body part so that the precise species can be identified and properly eradicated, as well as the use of biomineralization process(same as that used in making the bacterial concrete) in which microbes, introduced to a crack in a stone sculpture, will deposit a calcium carbonate that picks up the color of the original while filling the gap.

"Science has finally set a solid foot in the art world," says José Luis Ramirez, co-author of a 2005 study of the use of biotechnology in art preservation and director of the United Nations University's Program for Biotechnology for Lain America and the Caribbean (BIOLAC), which is an interdisciplinary school that promotes the use of biotechnology in fields from agriculture to manufacturing.

Bibliography:

1. Bang, S.S., Galinat, J.K. & Ramakrishnan, V. Calcite precipitation induced by polyurethaneimmobilized Bacillus pasteurii, Enzyme and Microbial Technology 28 (2001) 404–409
2. Rodriguez-Navarro, C, Rodriguez-Gallego, M., Chekroun, K.B. and Gonzalez-Munoz, M.T. Conservation of Ornamental Stone by Myxococcus xanthus-Induced Carbonate Biomineralization, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Apr. 2003, p. 2182–2193.
3. Ramikrishnan, V., Panchalan, R.K. and Bang, S.S. Improvement of concrete durability by bacterial mineral precipitation, in Proc. ICF 11, Torino, Italy, 2005.
4. Ramakrishnan V., Ramesh K. P., Bang S. S., “Bacterial concrete”, Proceedings of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE), The International Society for Optical Engineering, Bellingham, WA, Vol. 4234, 2001, pp. 168-176
5. Stocks-Fischer, S., Galinat, J. K., and Bang, S.S., “Microbiological precipitation of CaCO3”, Soil Biology and Biochemistry, Vol. 31, 1999, pp. 1563-1571
6. Gollapudi, U.K., Knutson, C.L., Bang, S.S., and Islam, M.R., “A New method for Controlling Leaching through Permeable Channels”, Chemosphere, Vol. 30, No. 4, 1995, pp. 695-705
7. Zhong, L., And Islam, M.R., “A New Microbial Process and its Impact on Fracture Remediation”, 70th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Dallas, Texas, Oct 22-25, 1995.
8. Harmon K.,"The Science of Saving Art: Can Microbes Protect Masterpieces?",
Scientific American, February 9, 2009

Question:

Discuss possible applications of bacterial concrete