ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,703,663, issued on Aug. 11, was assigned to Universitetet i Oslo (Oslo, Norway).
"Bio-catalytic calcium carbonate cementation" was invented by Anja Royne (Oslo, Norway), Alexander Wentzel (Trondheim, Norway) and Pawel Sikorski (Trondheim, Norway).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention is directed to methods of preparing biocement. The methods disclosed herein employ microbial or enzymatic means first to generate acid which dissolves CaCO3, and then to degrade urea, producing CO3- ions which increase the pH and lead to the reprecipitation of CaCO3. The precipitation of CaCO3 acts as a cementation process which can bind togeth...