Inoculum Choice

Conditions during start-up can have a dramatic impact on time required to reach reasonable performance levels and on the ultimate reactor performance. Dilution rate, loading rate as measured by chemical oxygen demand (COD), carrier choice, inoculum amount, inoculum strategy, and inoculum species distribution are critical parameters (Sreekrishnan et al., 1991 Araki and Harada, 1994 Austermann-Haun et al., 1994 Yongming et al., 1993). Pore characteristics have a strong influence on time required for start-up and on the ultimate biomass density in the... 

Mushroom spawn is used to inoculate prepared substrates. This inoculum consists of a carrier material fully colonized by mushroom mycelium. The type of carrier varies according to the mushroom species cultivated, although rye grain is the choice of most spavwi makers. The history of the development of mushroom spawn ior Agaricus brunnescens culture illustrates how spawn production has progressed in the last hundred years. 

Spore germination may have different optimal conditions to vegetative growth or may need to be stimulated by some nutritional or environmental factor. Inocula can be prepared either as a dry powder by SSF or as a liquid suspension by SLF. Furthermore, liquid inocula can easily be prepared from a sporulating solid culture by suspending the spores in a liquid medium. The choice between inoculum preparation methods will depend partly on how easily the inoculum can be mixed in homogeneously with the solid substrate, although this issue has received Httle attention [71]. 

A portion of transformed E. coli, stored in a glycerol stock, is used to grow an inoculum for addition to a large fermentor. The choice of media depends on the strain of microbe and chosen expression vector. It generally includes a chemical inducer to turn on the expression, a... 

One of the oldest methods, solid-state fermentation or the koji process, uses solid substrates, such as steam sterilized fibers or wheat bran, to cultivate the mold inoculum. This technique has been central to traditional food and beverage fermentations throughout Asia for thousands of years. Today solid-state fermentation is the cultivation method of choice for the commercial production of many enzymes and is gaining popularity in areas including bioremediation, detoxification of agro-industrial waste and biotransformation of crop residues for nutritional enrichment (Pandey et al., 2000 Singhania et al., 2009). 

Phytoremediation is a viable choice for hydrocarbon contaminated soils if plants can establish and survive to stress conditions. The present study demonstrated that Cyperus laxus and Cyperus ligularis, native plants from hydrocarbon contaminated site, were capable to remove efficiently hydrocarbons including anthracene and pyrene. Hydrocarbon removal extent was similar for non-inoculated and inoculated plants however, hydrocarbon removal rate was faster during first stage of cultivation for inoculated plants. PAH sorption in roots was detected only for C. laxus and was independent on the microbial inoculum added. This native species can be used for phytoremediation of hydrocarbons contaminated swamps. Further studies including plants and the inoculum proposed here should be addressed to phytoremediation of contaminated soils. 

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