Effect of inoculating flower stalks and vegetable waste with ligno-cellulolytic microorganisms on the composting process.
A lab-scale composting experiment was carried out using vegetable and flower stalks waste to study the effectiveness of ligno-cellulolytic microorganisms (LCMs) obtained from the previous isolation on composting process, especially on enhancement of biodegradation rate of these organic materials. The addition of LCMs to compost showed promised to be a valuable asset by rendering timely benefits in efficiency, maturity, and quality of the composting. This was evidenced by a significant increase of temperature, O2 consumption and CO2 emission, and population density of LCMs in compost mass compared with that of biotic (addition of culture of horse feces) and abiotic (1% molasses amendment) treatments, as well as control trial. The phytotoxicity assay showed that the substrate became mature after 60 days' composting. The LCMs inoculation enhanced the biodegradation of the composting materials as evidenced by an increasing screening ratio (1.2 cm sieve pore) of 34.5% in the treated trail, compared with that of control, which elucidated that big advantage of adding selected inoculants over other treatment, and screening ratio is a reasonable index to compare the quality of different compost. However, the inoculation seemed to have no significant effect on the moisture content, pH, and the final organic carbon of the composting materials.
Lu
Wen-Jing
WJ
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, PR China. luwenjing@tsinghua.edu.cn
Wang
Hong-Tao
HT
Nie
Yong-Feng
YF
Wang
Zhi-Chao
ZC
Huang
De-Yang
DY
Qiu
Xiang-Yang
XY
Chen
Jin-Chun
JC
D001419:Bacteria; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism*; D035264:Flowers; D008031:Lignin / Q000378:metabolism*; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D014675:Vegetables
D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin