Methane Production From Different Parts of Corn Stover via a Simple Co-culture of an Anaerobic Fungus and Methanogen

Yuqi Li; Zhesheng Hou; Qicheng Shi; Yanfen Cheng; Weiyun Zhu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.00314

Methane Production From Different Parts of Corn Stover via a Simple Co-culture of an Anaerobic Fungus and Methanogen

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2020 Apr 30:8:314. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00314. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yuqi Li^{1

2}, Zhesheng Hou³, Qicheng Shi^{1

2}, Yanfen Cheng^{1

2}, Weiyun Zhu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Gastrointestinal Microbiology, National Center for International Research on Animal Gut Nutrition, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
² Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, Nanjing Agriculture University, Nanjing, China.
³ College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Jilin Institute of Chemical Technology, Jilin, China.

Abstract

To determine ways to improve the utilization of corn stover, this study investigated methane production from different parts of corn stover using a simple co-culture of an anaerobic fungus (Pecoramyces species) and methanogen (Methanobrevibacter species). The simple co-culture was incubated with the stem pith, leaf blade, or stem bark of corn stover (as substrates) at 39°C for 72 h. The results showed that the stem bark had the lowest (P < 0.05) digestibility (38.0 ± 1.36%) and neutral detergent solubles, that is, cell solubles (31.6 ± 0.45%), and the highest (P < 0.05) lignin content (4.8 ± 0.56%). The leaf blade had a significantly higher methane conversion rate (56.6 ± 0.76 mL/g digested substrate) than the stem pith (49.2 ± 1.60 mL/g digested substrate), even though they showed similar levels of methane production (42.4 ± 1.0 mL and 40.9 ± 1.35 mL, respectively). Both the leaf blade and stem pith of corn stover have the potential to produce methane in a simple co-culture of an anaerobic fungus and methanogen.

Keywords: anaerobic fungus; corn stover; leaf blade; methanogen; stem pith.