Proliferation of Microorganisms in Compost by Addition of Bamboo Charcoals
Shuji Yoshizawa, Michio Ohata, Satoko Tanaka, ACER News vol 2 June 2005
Asian Center for Environmental Research (ACER)acer@meisei-u.ac.jp URL: http://acer.meisei-u.ac.jp/" class="glossary-indicator">i, Meisei University, Japan
http://acer.meisei-u.ac.jp

In Japan, charcoal and compost of biomass waste have been used for a long time as soil improvers in farms. Wood and bamboo charcoals have pores of several microns or several ten microns which are suitable for microorganisms grown for composting the biomass waste.

We prepared various charcoals made from bamboos, concrete frame wastes, corn-cobs and bean-curd refuse carbonized at 600 . 700°C. Complex microorganisms as seeds were added to the mixture of charcoal and rice bran. The rice bran is used as a fertilizer. Weight ratio of the charcoal and the rice bran was adjusted to 1 : 1.15. Moisture content of the mixture was 65%. The mixture system was maintained in ambient air at 23 °C and stirred vigorously with spatula once a day in order to contact it with the air. The amount of the microorganisms was estimated by measuring the amount of adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) in them. The microorganisms in the system proliferate by mixing charcoal with rice bran. It was also found that the proliferation depends on pH in the system. It was observed as shown in the photograph (left) taken by scanning electron micrograph (SEMi) technique that the microorganisms proliferated on the charcoal powder and in the pores of the charcoal.