Dust control and air quality are major environmental concerns, especially in arid regions. Several techniques have been developed in the past to control dust; however, several weaknesses of these techniques, including being short term, having a high cost, and toxicity in several cases, have been reported. This paper investigates the use of agriculturally derived (non-toxic) biopolymers to stabilize sand against wind-induced erosion. Three naturally occurring biopolymers, namely, acacia gum (AC), sodium alginate (SA), and pectin (PT), were used as stabilizing agents at varying concentrations. Wind tunnel laboratory experiments and penetration tests were used to evaluate the erosion resistance and the soil surface crust strength of sand treated with these biopolymers. The experimental results showed that the application of the proposed biopolymers, in general, significantly increased the resistance of dune sand exposed to wind speeds of up to 16.2 m/s compared to untreated sand or sand treated with water. The crust penetration resistance for soil treated with AC was observed to increase with increasing biopolymer concentration, whereas that of soil treated with SA and PT was found to reach a maximum at a concentration of 2%. Soil treated with SA and PT biopolymers showed remarkable resistance to wetting–drying cycles. However, soil treated with the AC biopolymer only showed durable resistance to wetting–drying cycles at concentrations of 3% and 5%. At a concentration of less than 3%, the soil loss rate was higher. Scanning electron microscopy images revealed that the sand particles were effectively bonded at their contacts and that the pores were filled with the biopolymers, which improved the crack and erosion resistance of the treated sand against wind erosion.

防尘和空气质量是主要的环境问题，特别是在干旱地区。过去已经开发了几种控制粉尘的技术。然而，已经报道了这些技术的一些缺点，包括短期的，高成本的以及在某些情况下的毒性。本文研究了使用农业衍生的（无毒）生物聚合物来稳定沙子以防风蚀。三种天然存在的生物聚合物，即阿拉伯胶（AC），藻酸钠（SA）和果胶（PT），被用作不同浓度的稳定剂。使用风洞实验室实验和渗透测试评估了用这些生物聚合物处理过的沙子的耐蚀性和土壤表面结壳强度。实验结果表明，所提出的生物聚合物的应用，通常，与未经处理的沙子或经水处理的沙子相比，显着提高了沙丘沙子在高达16.2 m / s的风速下的抵抗力。观察到AC处理的土壤的抗结壳穿透性随着生物聚合物浓度的增加而增加，而SA和PT处理的土壤的抗结壳穿透性达到2％的最大值。用SA和PT生物聚合物处理过的土壤表现出显着的抗干湿循环性。但是，用AC生物聚合物处理过的土壤仅在浓度为3％和5％的情况下才显示出对干湿循环的持久抵抗力。浓度低于3％时，土壤流失率更高。扫描电子显微镜图像显示，沙粒在其接触处有效结合，并且孔中充满了生物聚合物，