Efficient methane production from anaerobic co-digestion of poultry litter with wheat straw in sequencing batch reactor: Effects of carbon-to-nitrogen ratio, total solids, and hydraulic retention time.

This study performed co-digestion of poultry litter (PL) with wheat straw in the daily anaerobic sequencing batch reactor considering operation parameters of carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N, 11.6 to 28.4), total solids (TS, 2.6 to 9.4%), and hydraulic retention time (HRT, 7.6 to 24.4d). The inoculum with a diverse microbial community structure included 2% of methanogens (Methanosaeta) was chosen. Experimental performance by central composite design showed continuous methane production with the highest biogas production rate (BPR) obtained at C/N = 20, TS = 6%, and HRT = 7.6d, being (1.18 ± 0.14 L/LR/d). A significant modified quadratic model (p < 0.0001) for predicting BPR was built (R2 = 0.9724). The operation parameters and process stability both affected the release of nitrogen, phosphorus, and magnesium in the effluent. The results provided new support for the novel reactor operations for efficient bioenergy production from PL and agricultural wastes.

Effect of bacterial inoculation of strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Alcaligenes feacalis and Bacillus subtilis on germination, growth and heavy metal (Cd, Cr, and Ni) uptake of Brassica juncea.

Bacterial inoculation may influence Brassica juncea growth and heavy metal (Ni, Cr, and Cd) accumulation. Three metal tolerant bacterial isolates (BCr3, BCd33, and BNi11) recovered from mine tailings, identified as Pseudomonas aeruginosa KP717554, Alcaligenes feacalis KP717561, and Bacillus subtilis KP717559 were used. The isolates exhibited multiple plant growth beneficial characteristics including the production of indole-3-acetic acid, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia, insoluble phosphate solubilization together with the potential to protect plants against fungal pathogens. Bacterial inoculation improved seeds germination of B. juncea plant in the presence of 0.1 mM Cr, Cd, and Ni, as compared to the control treatment. Compared with control treatment, soil inoculation with bacterial isolates significantly increased the amount of soluble heavy metals in soil by 51% (Cr), 50% (Cd), and 44% (Ni) respectively. Pot experiment of B. juncea grown in soil spiked with 100 mg kg(-1) of NiCl2, 100 mg kg(-1) of CdCl2, and 150 mg kg(-1) of K2Cr2O7, revealed that inoculation with metal tolerant bacteria not only protected plants against the toxic effects of heavy metals, but also increased growth and metal accumulation of plants significantly. These findings suggest that such metal tolerant, plant growth promoting bacteria are valuable tools which could be used to develop bio-inoculants for enhancing the efficiency of phytoextraction.