DIY Soil Stabilizer Recipe

grace2succeed

OPEN SOURCE Enzyme Stablizer for CEB BLock & Road Construction:

Anyone interested in helping create an open source Enzyme formula to stabilize compacted earth to build roads, CEBs, walkways, driveways, warehouse floors, basement floors, water wells, slurry ponds, etc.?

Currently, certain companies sell enzyme mixtures for $350.00 per gallon.

With a little research and practice we might be able to create a similar product for under $100 per gallon. Plus instead of having to pay shipping to third world countries like in Africa and Asia and Latin America, we could teach local people how to make their own variety, using their own resources, and save big on shipping and production costs.

Currently, It takes 15 gallons to build a road 1 mile long, 25 feet wide, and 6 inches deep (using only a clay content soil), which amounts to $5,250.00 per mile (that covers the major material cost--except water--for the majority of the project, that is, if the native soil for the road has an adequate clay ratio content. (Note: If we could get the cost down to $50.00 a gallon, that would mean the cost could be reduced to $750.00 per mile.)

The enzyme mixture is made from molasses and cattle feed grain, which is fermented for 6 to 9 days, (which creates an 80 percent enzyme mixture with 20 percent sugar). Later, surfactants are added to help with soil penetration.

Then the mixture is mixed with 500 gallons of water, and then sprayed on the soil and mixed in 6 inches deep, then spread, then compacted (using a steam roller, or "sheep's foot") to make a concrete like (or more shale like) surface that resists water penetration, has a weight bearing capacity similar to concrete, is easily maintained, and is long lasting (and can be finished with asphalt or chip seal, but does not need it).

This process can also be applied to CEB construction, basements, ponds, pools, walkways, parking lots, etc. where ever you need a solid, water resistant, surface with decent load baring capacity.

Looking forward to some good discussion about this subject. This is an idea worth spreading.

Thomas

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How hard would it be to create an open source steam roller type attachment for the LifeTrac tractor to compress the soil?

Then all we need is a Blade, or grader to spread the soil, and a water truck to wet the soil with the enzyme,
and we have totally contained open source road construction crew for any third world application.

AJ_Tarnas

That's an interesting idea. If the "enzyme" is actually just fermented molasses and cattle feed, then it should cost less than a dollar per gallon and could easily be grown at scale in the tropics. Molasses and cattle feed are basically waste products of modern industry that sometimes cost more to transport and handle than their market value -- they require gov't subsidy to exist as commodities.

I'd be more interested in a 4-foot wide "road" though -- bike or moto-van scale. Get more length for your width.

Another line of inquiry: crushed limestone or high lime content clay is common for bike paths. Most geopolymers are based on a bulk limestone aggregate. I'd love to find a way to make the "alkali activator" that causes the geopolymer reaction in a way that could be poured on a bike path, solidifying it into... limestone! I've bought a lot of geopolymer ingredients and just haven't done any tests yet.

Here's an untested formula:
- Roughly 1 cubic yard (1 ton) limestone aggregate
- Roughly 1 cubic foot kaolin
- Roughly .5 cubic foot natron and hydrated lime
- 130 gallons of water (500 L)

Rough ratio:
27:1:0.5:17 ... limestone:kaolin:natron+lime:water

grace2succeed

Can you help??

So far I haven't met the person able to replicate an enzyme that can stabilize dirt:
that would be able to transform raw dirt (with 20% clay content)
into perfectly stabilized driveways, and CEB BLOCKS.

The GOAL is a liquid enzyme concentrate, made from feed grains and molasses which have been fermented for five to nine days in a process similar to making beer.
The end product is approximately 80 percent enzymes and 20 percent
sugar, and is then blended with a surfactant to facilitate carrying the
enzyme into the soil.

--ROAD WAYS
--DRIVE WAYS
--walkways,
---bike paths,
--CEB building blocks, (for house walls, planters, paving stones, kitchen floors)
--Rammed Earth Construction Walls and Homes,
--garage floors,
--parking lots,
--Water Tight: Fish Ponds
--Running Streams
--Swimming Pool Walls

If anyone knows "the guy" who can help with this ... please respond.

thomas@nica7project.com

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DIY Soil Stabilizer Recipe

By: Owen Geiger

Hello,

There are many enzymes products in the market like; EMC Squared,
Permazyme, Endurazyme, Paczyme, Earthzyme, RoadTech, UBIX, ECOroads,
EcoMax/Nrzyma, Zym-Tec, Terrazyme, PX300, EnzymeRoads, Corchem 5510,
Roadzyme, PaveZyme, EcoTerra, and others. All contain similar
substances.

I´m divulging the information below purely for humanitarian,
altruistic reasons and a dream, that maybe a day, people in developing
countries can stabilize the soil of the roads, earth blocks, earthbags
without having to pay for trademarks and/or expensive hydraulic cements.

The enzymes for soil stabilization are made from fermenting sugar in a
process similar to beer brewing, but the process continues until
everything is fermented (Mihai O. M.; Ray H.; Timothy R. C.; Velasquez,
R. A.. Preliminary laboratory investigation of enzyme solutions as a
soil stabilizer. Final Report. Minnesota Department of Transportation,
Research Services Section / University of Minnesota Department of Civil
Engineering, Minneapolis, MN, 2005.

We can see information that the enzyme from PermaZyme lnternational
Enzymes (and similar) are made from water, molasses, malt, yeast, sugar
and non-ionic surfactant (Engineering Field Notes, volume 26, may-june
1993, United States Department of Agriculture. Dust Abatement Product
Comparisons in Northern Region, figure 01, pag 27).

How to produce these enzymes: In a bioreator add warm water and
agitate slowly. After add molasses and more warm water. Next add a
dissolved mixture of urea and magnesium sulfate. After add a specific
type of yeast (a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) and wait some
days. The next step is to separate the materials adding aluminum sulfate
and others substances and finally filter the ferment in a filter. We
need check the ph and temperature continuously because it is a
fermenting process. Observe that this is only a summary of the process
where these and others steps/substances are needed.

We can´t forgot that enzymes react with the organic matter in the
soil; the substances formed help in formation of the bonds between
points of the the crystalline structure of the clayey materials,
stabilizing the soil mass. Thus soils need to contain some organic
material like decayed material.”

Thanks to RB for this information.

←More from General

How
to produce: A Road Stabilizing Enzyme

We need to fill in some unaswered questions from below ...

In a bioreator

add warm water (how
much?)
agitate slowly (how long?)
add molasses (how
much?)
add more warm water (how
much? How warm?)
ADD (malt,/pig feed, sugar)
(How much? when? temperature?)
add a dissolved mixture of
urea (when? how much?) and magnesium
sulfate (how much?)
add a specific type of
yeast (a strain of Saccharomyces
cerevisiae ) (when? how much?) and wait some days (how
long?).
The next step is to separate
the materials (how to separate—screen filter ok?)
adding aluminum sulfate
and
adding others substances
(what substances?)
- non-ionic surfactant
- ???
- ???
and finally filter the
ferment in a filter.
We need check the ph and
temperature continuously because it is a fermenting process.
Observe that this is only a summary of the process where these and
others steps/substances are needed.
What ingredient(s) do we need to add to the mixture to
stabilize the enzyme formula (halting the fermentation process,
etc.)?
What is the ideal temperature to ferment the mixture?

grace2succeed

DIY Enzyme Soil Stabilizer -- Open Source

Dear Friends,

I would like to provide a good report about our progress with making a DIY Enzyme Soil Stabilizer, but we have not had much in put on the subject in a while.

There is much information on the internet about how to make eco-enzymes, and kitchen garbage enzymes and the like which can be easily made at home, etc, but which may or may not work for soil stabilization.

Therefore there is still a real need for a gifted or trained individual or group of individuals who could share their understanding and knowledge on how to create, isolate, and stabilize the correct enzyme needed to bind clay particles in the soil to the surrounding, gravel particles to make a lasting water resistant surface.

I would like to request that if you believe this is an important subject that you would pray, and ask God, the Father, for His plan and His help, in orchestrating the right people, the right resources, and the right relationships that will accomplish the goal of creating an open source method of developing a DIY Enzyme Soil Stabilizer.

This project could dramatically improve the lives of the poor around the globe, as well as, radically lower the cost and green footprint in providing safe roads, and building facilities for the poor.

DIY Soil Stabilizer Recipe

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