Application of rumen and anaerobic sludge microbes for bio harvesting from lignocellulosic biomass

Abstract This study investigated the production of biogas, volatile fatty acids(VFAs), and other soluble organic from lignocellulosic biomassby two microbial communities (i.e. rumenfluid and anaerobic sludge). Four types of abundant lignocellulosic biomass(i.e. wheat straw, oaten hay, lurence hay and corn silage) found in Australia were used. The results show that rumenmicrobes produced four-time higher VFAs level than that of anaerobic sludge reactors, indicating the possible application of rumenmicroorganism for VFAs generation from lignocellulosic biomass. VFA production in the rumenfluid reactors was probably due to the presence of specific hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria (e.g. Fibrobacterand Prevotella). VFA production corroborated from the observation of pH drop in the rumenfluid reactors indicated hydrolytic and acidogenic inhibition, suggesting the continuous extraction of VFAs from the reactor. Anaerobic sludge reactors on the other hand, produced more biogas than that of rumenfluid reactors. This observation was consistent with the abundance of methanogens in anaerobic sludge inoculum (3.98% of total microbes) compared to rumenfluid (0.11%). VFA production from lignocellulosic biomassis the building block chemical for bioplastic, biohydrogenand biofuel. The results from this study provide important foundation for the development of engineered systems to generate VFAs from lignocellulosic biomass.