Biomineralization to strengthen native subgrade materials to reduce costs and time to construct expeditionary Air Force runways

The U.S. Military is in the process of rehabilitating WW2 airfields on islands in the Pacific Ocean.  For several of these island runways, due to inferior native soils, expensive base and/or subgrade materials must be transported long distances to the airfield construction site. BioSqueeze® technology can significantly reduce the duration and cost of airfield construction repairs by using biomineralization to strengthen native soils, thereby eliminating the need for transporting expensive materials from other locations. According to the Air Force RED HORSE squadron, the cost of transporting these subgrade materials is extremely high. They are also facing time challenges on these islands as many of them do not have large commercial ports, meaning that they must transport this material in inefficient, smaller quantities. The integration of BioSqueeze® technology with the USAF's existing RED HORSE operations has the potential to significantly enhance the military’s ability to facilitate rapid airfield construction, providing a significant advantage in forward basing scenarios. This is particularly relevant given the USAF's pursuit of Agile Combat Employment (ACE) to reduce reliance on vulnerable fixed bases and operate from forward basing locations.  The non-toxic BioSqueeze® soil stabilization process consists of injecting naturally occurring microbes, and common agricultural grade chemicals into sand or soil. These aqueous solutions have a viscosity similar to water allowing them to flow readily into the pore spaces between sand particles. The process promotes calcium carbonate precipitation in the channels, essentially growing new rock to stabilize and strengthen the sand or soil. As an offshoot of our successful commercial oil well sealing technology, BioSqueeze Inc. (BSI) has been developing new methods to biomineralize sand and soil to harden it and reduce porosity. Our optimized techniques are able to homogeneously stabilize soil to a significant depth over a large area. Integrating BioSqueeze® technology into the USAF airfield construction and rehabilitation program will significantly enhance the USAF's forward basing capabilities, ultimately supporting ACE initiatives and improving the USAF's ability to project airpower in a contested environment.