Promoted wheat straw degradation on a composite microbial system

Abstract The improvement of lignocellulosic fermentation efficiency via a composite biological system incorporating multiple strains holds immense potential for various applications. In this study, we used Bacteroides cellulosolvens, Escherichia coli and Alcaligenes faecalis to construct a composite microbial system (CM), which has good degradation ability to lignocellulose. Degradation conditions were optimized and possible mechanisms during the degradation process on this composite microbial system were further studied. Research results indicated that the degradation rates of lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose were 40.43%, 33.19% and 42.69% respectively under certain conditions (temperature at 37 ℃, pH at 6.0, solid-liquid ratio at 8% and culture time over 312 h. The construction of the combination bacteria significantly enhanced the degradation ability of lignocellulose and showed a good correlation and coordination mechanism.