Measuring and Modelling Kinetics of CO2 hydration catalysed by Carbonic Anhydrase in Buffered Systems
Measuring and Modelling Kinetics of CO2 hydration catalysed by Carbonic Anhydrase in Buffered Systems
Microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation (MICP) has been found to accelerate solubility trapping of CO2, i.e. converting labile CO2(g) to more stable carbonates (HCO3-, CO32-), mitigating leakage of CO2 stored in underground sites. MICP is driven by urease and carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes, but the impact of CA on the rates of MICP remains largely uncaptured. To study the catalysis by CA, we developed a high-throughput method to determine the rate constants of CA. The pH response of a medium containing CA when subject to a sudden increase in CO2(aq) concentration was captured experimentally. Subsequently, fitting the input parameters of a modelled pH response to the experiment yielded rate constants of first-order kinetics. Further development of the method will target the determination of the rate constants of reversible Michaelis-Menten kinetics, which are envisaged to help with understanding how CA influences the development of species concentration in MICP over time and if CA can benefit CO2 trapping with MICP.
Raymond Chen; Ahmet Mert Kavala; Emily Miller; Alexandra Clara Saracho; J. Ewa Marek
2025 International Conference on Bio-mediated and Bio-inspired Geotechnics (ICBBG2025)
Special symposium: MICP for sustainable geoenergy applications
https://doi.org/10.53243/ICBBG2025-171
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