Contact: Ellie Buena and Alejandra Reyes-Amezaga
Physical, chemical and biological weathering has a profound impact on the Earth’s landscape and on building infrastructure, with rock and masonry being constantly damaged and disaggregated by chemical attack, water infiltration and temperature changes. Strengthening efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage’ is one of the United Nations’ Targets for Sustainable Cities and Communities in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Fluid flow is an important driver of weathering. The key to manipulating rock weathering lies in controlling fluid flow within the internal pore structure and thereby influencing the related pore scale processes. The pore space topology of rocks has a major effect on fluid flow. If we can influence this, we can influence fluid flow. Some microbial organisms display physiological capabilities that have beneficial effects on rock properties, due to their production of bio-cement, gas and acids. However, until now these effects were never studied at the pore scale and actively used to influence building stone weathering. BugControl aims to explore how to use microbial colonization as a positive factor for building stone conservation. Fundamental research will be performed to: a) better understand fluid-rock interaction in the presence of microbial organisms using advanced 4D imaging; b) predict the impact of microbial organisms on rock properties; c) develop smart bio-conservation strategies. Understanding bio-manipulated pore-scale processes inside rocks is the missing link to predict and influence weathering. For the first time, the microbial effect will be monitored in real-time at the pore scale using high-resolution imaging. Exploiting these 3D images as input for pore network modelling and upscaling of behaviour to macroscale will allow BugControl to influence rock weathering via new bio-conservation strategies. This can directly be implemented to protection of cultural heritage, but also in environmental geology, hydrogeology, CO2 sequestration strategies and others.
BugControl is a Vici project of NWO. More details about the project can be found here.