BACKGROUND Mixed microbial cultures, in which bacteria and fungi interact, have been proposed as an efficient way to deconstruct plant waste. The characterization of specific microbial consortia could be the starting point for novel biotechnological applications related to the efficient conversion of lignocellulose to cello-oligosaccharides, plastics and/or biofuels. Here, the diversity, compos...

The aim of this study was to compare different types of bedding and mucking regimens used in horse stables on the generation of airborne particulate matter <10 microm (PM10) and 3 biogenic gases (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and especially ammonia). Three separate experiments were undertaken. The experiments were carried out in an enclosed stable (9.7 m long, 8.7 m wide, and 3.5 m high) that ...

Chopped wheat straw, containing increasing amounts of added water was treated with a constant level of ammonia (3.3 percent of straw dry matter) as ammonium hydroxide, and stored for I to 60 days before determing in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVD MD), nitrogen content and fiber-bound nitrogen (ADF-N) versus free ammonia nitrogen (NH3N) of the treated sample. The overall improvement (e.g., ...

this study was conducted to investigate the effect of biological treatment withpleurotus floridafungi on chemical composition and rumen dry matter (dm) and organic matter (om) degradability of wheat and barley straw. wheat and barley straw were collected from golestan province of iran and after pasteurization mixed with fungi spawn (than 5% by weight). after 21 days samples were dried in oven (...

Mulching and tillage are widely considered to be major practices for improving soil and water conservation where water is scarce. This paper studied the effects of FM (flat mulching), RFM (ridge-furrow mulching), SM (straw mulching), MTMC (mulching with two materials combined), MOM (mulching with other materials), NT (no-tillage) ST (subsoiling tillage) and RT (rotational tillage) on wheat yiel...

BACKGROUND In this study, the dilute maleic acid pretreatment of wheat straw is optimized, using pretreatment time, temperature and maleic acid concentration as design variables. A central composite design was applied to the experimental set up. The response factors used in this study are: (1) glucose benefits from improved enzymatic digestibility of wheat straw solids; (2) xylose benefits from...

Sustainability of the rice–wheat rotation is important to Asia’s food security. Intensive cropping with no return of crop residues and other organic materials results in loss of soil organic matter and is not sustainable. We evaluated effect of eight treatments comprised of various combinations of green manure (GM), wheat straw (WS), rice straw (RS), farmyard manure (FYM) and urea alone (contro...

A field study was conducted to assess the effects of soil tillage practices and straw management on soil CO2, and yield-scaled CO2 emissions in a rain-fed summer corn field on the Loess Plateau. Tillage treatments consisted of sub-soiling tillage (CP), no tillage (NT) and moldboard plow tillage (CT). Wheat straw was removed from half of the CP, NT and CT plots after harvest, allowing us to test...

The main results derived from the ozone pre-treatment of grain straw are shown. The use of ozone reduced acid insoluble lignin content in grain straw, whereas acid soluble lignin increased. This fact resulted in a more accessible structure to enzymes leading to higher enzymatic hydrolysis yield. Ozone consumption after 2.5 h reaction time was about 0.10-0.12 g/g DS, independently of the type of...

Rapid and efficient enzymatic degradation of plant biomass into fermentable sugars is a major challenge for the sustainable production of biochemicals and biofuels. Enzymes that are more thermostable (up to 70°C) use shorter reaction times for the complete saccharification of plant polysaccharides compared to hydrolytic enzymes of mesophilic fungi such as Trichoderma and Aspergillus species. Th...