Biocalcification using Ureolytic Bacteria (UB) for strengthening Interlocking Compressed Earth Blocks (ICEB)

Interlocking compressed earth blocks (ICEB) are soil based blocks that allows for mortarless construction. This characteristic resulted to faster the process of building walls and required less skilled labor as the blocks are laid dry and lock into place. Recently, implementation in using bacteria as construction material improvement is vigorously used in research in order pursuit the sustainable construction works. This paper provide the results of ureolytic bacteria (UB) throughout enrichment process in soil condition to acclimatize the ICEB environment, compressive strength of 1%, 3% and 5% UB and SEM analysis of ICEB. The bacteria were added as partial replacement of limestone water in ICEB. The results showed the optimal growth achieved based on the days and absorbance from optical density (OD) test which are in 12^th days with absorbance of 0.55 whereas the results for strength shows the increment of 15.25% with 5% UB on 28^th days of testing compared to control specimen. Therefore this study hopes that positive results from the UB as improving in strength of ICEB which will lead to improve others ICEB properties and others construction materials.