Effect of enzymatic pre-treatment on thermophilic composting of shrimp pond sludge to improve ammonia recovery.

In recent years, attempts have been made to develop a thermophilic composting process for organic sludge to produce ammonia gas for high value-added algal production. However, the hydrolysis of non-dissolved organic nitrogen in sludge is a bottleneck for ammonia conversion. The aim of this study was to identify enzymes that enhance sludge hydrolysis in a thermophilic composting system for ammonia recovery from shrimp pond sludge. This was achieved by screening useful enzymes to degrade non-dissolved nitrogen and subsequently investigating their effectiveness in lab-scale composting systems. Among the four hydrolytic enzyme classes assessed (lysozyme, protease, phospholipase, and collagenase), proteases from Streptomyces griseus were the most effective at hydrolysing non-dissolved nitrogen in the sludge. After composting sludge pre-treated with proteases, the final amount of non-dissolved nitrogen was 46.2% of the total N in the control sample and 22.3% of the total N in the protease sample, thus increasing the ammonia (gaseous and in-compost) conversion efficiency from 41.5% to 56.4% of the total N. The decrease in non-dissolved nitrogen was greater in the protease sample than in the control sample during the pre-treatment period, and no difference was observed during the subsequent composting period. These results suggest that Streptomyces proteases hydrolyse the organic nitrogen fraction, which cannot be degraded by the bacterial community in the compost. Functional potential analysis of the bacterial community using PICRUSt2 suggested that 4 (EC:3.4.21.80, EC:3.4.21.81, EC:3.4.21.82, and EC:3.4.24.77) out of 13 endopeptidase genes in S. griseus were largely absent in the compost bacterial community and that they play a key role in the hydrolysis of non-dissolved nitrogen. This is the first study to identify the enzymes that enhance the hydrolysis of shrimp pond sludge and to show that the thermophilic bacterial community involved in composting has a low ability to secrete these enzymes.

Inoculation of Neurospora sp. for improving ammonia production during thermophilic composting of organic sludge.

Recent attempts have been made to develop a thermophilic composting process for organic sludge to not only produce organic fertilizers and soil conditioners, but to also utilize the generated ammonia gas to produce high value-added algae. The hydrolysis of organic nitrogen in sludge is a bottleneck in ammonia conversion, and its improvement is a major challenge. The present study aimed to elucidate the effects of inoculated Neurospora sp. on organic matter decomposition and ammonia conversion during thermophilic composting of two organic sludge types: anaerobic digestion sludge and shrimp pond sludge. A laboratory-scale sludge composting experiment was conducted with a 6-day pretreatment period at 30 °C with Neurospora sp., followed by a 10-day thermophilic composting period at 50 °C by inoculating the bacterial community. The final organic matter decomposition was significantly higher in the sludge pretreated with Neurospora sp. than in the untreated sludge. Correspondingly, the amount of non-dissolved nitrogen was also markedly reduced by pretreatment, and the ammonia conversion rate was notably improved. Five enzymes exhibiting high activity only during the pretreatment period were identified, while no or low activity was observed during the subsequent thermophilic composting period, suggesting the involvement of these enzymes in the degradation of hardly degradable fractions, such as bacterial cells. The bacterial community analysis and its function prediction suggested the contribution of Bacillaceae in the degradation of easily degradable organic matter, but the entire bacterial community was highly incapable in degrading the hardly degradable fraction. To conclude, this study is the first to demonstrate that Neurospora sp. decomposes those organic nitrogen fractions that require a long time to be decomposed by the bacterial community during thermophilic composting.

Lactic acid bacteria modulate organic acid production during early stages of food waste composting.

Lactic acid bacteria are observed during early stages of almost all food waste composting. Among them, 2 types of lactic acid bacteria, Pediococcus (homofermentative lactic acid bacterium) and Weissella (heterofermentative lactic acid bacterium) have been often reported. In this study, the roles of these 2 types of lactic acid bacteria in the composting were tried to elucidate. It has been pointed out that Pediococcus accelerates the composting process by producing lactic acid which prevented acetic acid generation, thus activating indigenous composting microorganisms. On the other hand, this study elucidated that Weissella produced acetic acid of 20 mg g-1 DS, which is harmful to composting microorganisms, resulting in the inhibition of vigorous organic matter degradation. When these 2 coexist in the starting material, whether the composting succceeds or not depends on the ratio of these 2 lactic acid bacteria. If Pediococcus and Weissella ratio was higher than 101.5, acetic acid level was almost 3 times lower than that observed in the composting with their lower ratios of 1 and 10-1, probably because of the interaction of Pediococcus and Weissella resulting in the suppression of Weissella activity, and thus composting was accelerated.

Composting of food waste subjected to hydrothermal pretreatment and inoculated with Paecilomyces sp. FA13.

Food waste collected from restaurants, convenience stores, and food-processing factories was mixed with sawdust and subjected to hydrothermal pretreatment at 180°C for 30min to prepare compost raw material. Furan compounds such as 5-HMF (5-hydroxymethyl furfural) and furfural were produced at concentration levels of approximately 8 and 0.5mg/g-ds, respectively, through hydrothermal pretreatment. The furan compounds inhibited the activity of composting microorganisms, thus delaying the start of organic matter degradation during composting. A newly identified fungus, Paecilomyces sp. FA13, which possesses the ability to degrade furan compounds, was isolated and used as an inoculum for the composting of the raw material prepared by hydrothermal pretreatment. By inoculating the FA13 into the compost raw material at 10(5)CFU/g-ds, the degradation of furan compounds was accelerated. As a result, bacterial activity, which contributed to composting, was enhanced, significantly promoting the start of vigorous degradation of organic materials.