| 摘要 |
Melanin or inorganic fertilizers are produced from fermentation leachates or from low-cost nutrient-rich solutions. The method for producing the melanin or inorganic fertilizer comprises repetitive trophic cycling in the controlled conditions of primary and secondary bioreactors. Nutrients are cycled between microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast and fungi and black soldier fly larvae, Hermetia illucens. Polysaccharides are partly converted into natural melanins or inorganic fertilizer, which are difficult to biodegrade and hence accumulate in the bioreactors. The method can employ, as a source of nutrients, leachates produced from food waste or from sugar-rich liquid waste of the food industry. These leachates can be used raw or can be augmented with low-cost sugar-rich solutions such as molasses, hydrolyzed cellulose or starch. The method is inexpensive and does not require the use of expensive chemically-defined culture media. |
| 主权项 |
1. A method for producing a secondary leachate for use in producing inorganic fertilizer from the secondary leachate comprising the steps of:
(a) providing a primary processing bioreactor, a fermentation medium and a microbial culture comprising microorganisms, wherein the microorganisms in the microbial culture comprise Lactobacillus bacteria; (b) fermenting the fermentation medium with the microbial culture in the primary processing bioreactor, thereby producing a primary leachate, wherein the primary leachate comprises microorganisms derived from the microbial culture and/or naturally occurring microorganisms acquired during the fermentation step; (c) isolating or removing the primary leachate from the primary processing bioreactor; (d) providing the primary leachate isolated or removed from the primary processing bioreactor, a secondary processing bioreactor, Hermetia illucens (black soldier fly) larvae (BSFL), and a cellulose-based substrate; (e) culturing the BSFL in an aerated culture with the primary leachate isolated or removed from the primary processing bioreactor and the cellulose-based substrate in the secondary processing bioreactor under suboptimal culture conditions for culture of the BSFL, thereby producing a secondary leachate, wherein the suboptimal culture condition is suboptimal temperature, high density, chemical stress, acidification, presence of toxic secondary metabolites, and/or nutrient starvation; and (f) isolating or removing the secondary leachate from the secondary processing bioreactor, wherein the secondary leachate from the secondary processing bioreactor comprises inorganic fertilizer; and (g) extracting or isolating the inorganic fertilizer from the secondary leachate. |
