Controlled composting of straw

Production of composts on the farm from surplus straw might provide a low-cost biotechnological approach for increasing the value of this lignocellulosic waste. Successful composting depends on the conversion of the polysac-charides (cellulose and hemicelluloses) of straw by inoculated microorganisms to products that can promote plant growth when applied to the land. The authors have studied mixed populations in which noncellulolytic bacteria depend for growth on the products of fungal cellulolysis. Under defined laboratory conditions, using pure cellulose, N sub(2) is fixed by the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium butyricum) in association with a cellulolytic fungus such as Trichoderma sp. A similar association has been achieved on straw with Penicillium corylophilum as the cellulolytic fungus.