Bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes into eco-friendly and useful products

Every year huge amounts of lignocellulosic wastes are produced all over the world. But the most part of these lignocellulosic wastes are not used at all being stored in improper places or left on the fields leading to the environmental pollution. For a better valorizing of these wastes, the main scope of the experiments presented in this paper was to set up the biotechnology for bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes that are come out from forestry and wood processing industry, pomiculture and viticulture, through the application of biotechnologies based on controlled growing of edible and medicinal mushroom species. To carry out the laboratory-scale biotechnological experiments, two mushroom species were used, namely, Ganoderma lucidum and Pleurotus eryngii. Both mushroom species were cultivated on many types of lignocellulosic wastes (tree chopped branches, wood chips, sawdust from forest industry, and wastes which are produced in fruit growing and viticulture) as raw substrates for mushroom growing inside of stainless steel matrices with the shape of pots. The first category of final products resulted from the application of such laboratory-scale biotechology was represented by a large scale of fully biodegradable materials in the shape of pots, supports or protective structures being made of the compost resulted from mushroom mycelia growing on these lignocellulosic wastes. The second category of final products is referring to mushroom fruiting bodies of both species. In this respect, the fruit body productions of these two mushroom species used in experiments were registered between 2.3 and 2.8 kg relative to 10 kg of substrates made of lignocellulosic wastes. From all six substrate variants tested in experiments, the best one for growing both mushroom species it turned out to be the substrate S1. It was established the optimal biotechnology for bioconversion of lignocellulosic wastes that are come out from wood processing industry, pomiculture and viticulture, through controlled growing of edible and medicinal mushroom species, at laboratoy scale.