抄録
Usefulness of coffee grounds as a carrier of microflora capable of decomposing garbage was investigated by using a middle-scale composting reactor (100 l in volume). When coffee grounds fermented with garbage and rice straw were used for composting of garbage as a seed culture, composting of garbage could be successfully continued for 160 days in fed-batch mode without increasing in the volume. During the operation, the pH of the composting garbage fluctuated between 5 and 7. An offensive odor due to sulfide compounds was not negligible at acidic pH range. When coffee grounds well-moisturized with phosphate buffer (pH 7.6), the pH of composting garbage were maintained at about 6.5 without increasing the problem of odor for more than 80 days. Changes in microbial consortium analyzed by denaturing gradient gel elecrophoresis indicated that some bacterial species found in fermented coffee grounds remained during the composting period . These results suggested that coffee grounds were quite useful as a habitat for microbial consortium capable of decomposing garbage.
