Emerging technologies of employing algae and microorganisms to promote the return-to-field of crop straws: A mini-review

Qian Lu; Yu Xiao; Pengfei Wu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1152778

Emerging technologies of employing algae and microorganisms to promote the return-to-field of crop straws: A mini-review

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Mar 30:11:1152778. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1152778. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qian Lu¹, Yu Xiao¹, Pengfei Wu²

Affiliations

¹ School of Grain Science and Technology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang, China.
² College of Forestry, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

As an agricultural waste, crop straw enriched with a variety of nutrients is regarded as an important fertilizer resource. In the past, crop straw return-to-field played a key role in the sustainability of agricultural environment, but some problems, such as ammonia loss in ammoniation, low rate of straw decomposition, and high carbon footprint, attracted researchers' attentions. In this paper, we propose three technical routes, including cyanobacteria-based ammonia assimilation, microorganisms-based crop straw pretreatment, and microalgae-based carbon capture, to address the aforementioned problems. Besides, challenges which may hinder the practical application of these technical routes as well as the potential solutions are discussed in detail. It is expected that this paper could provide new ideas to the practical application of crop straw return-to-field.

Keywords: agricultural resource; algae; crop straw; environment; microorganisms.

Publication types

Review