Bacterial Concrete for the Development of Sustainable Construction—A Review

Concrete which is vastly utilized in building materials has its own disadvantages, one being the phenomenon of crack formation which allows the passage of water, CO₂ and other chemicals into the concrete. The incoming materials cause decrement in strength along with durability and ductility. These materials also have adverse effects on reinforcements. If the cracks are not healed as soon as they are formed, they might expand and become larger allowing passage of more amount of materials causing greater problems. That’s why the best solution is to prevent the formation of cracks from the very beginning. Self-healing concrete provides one such solution. In self-healing concrete, the concrete material is capable of healing the cracks formed beforehand, on its own. Microbial actions help in this. The basic principle of self-healing concrete is the formation of calcium carbonate precipitate by bacterial action. This introduction of bacterial concrete paves the way to the production of more durable, sustainable, crack-free and more efficient concrete. The usage of bacteria in concrete justifies its name, microbial concrete or biological concrete (in short bio concrete). The bio concrete causes less pollution and is economic as well. This paper aims at defining bacterial concrete and its effects on concrete properties and describing its merits and few demerits.