Soybean curd waste-photosynthetic sludge samples from the Kobe plant and the laboratory apparatus yielded purple nonsulfur bacteria with numbers as many as 3.3×10
6 and 5.0×10
7 viable cells per mg of dry sludge, respectively. The phototrophic bacteria constituted 8 to 20% of the aerobic heterotrophic bacterial population in the waste sludge. Phototrophic sulfur bacteria and sulfate-reducing bacteria were also found in numbers of the order of 10
4 viable cells per mg of dry sludge. The predominant species of purple nonsulfur bacteria recoverd were
Rhodopseudomonas sphaeroides and denitrifying
Rhodopseudomonas sp. that resembles the former species. Unidentified strains similar to
Rhodopseudomonas palustris were frequently isolated as well. The occurrence of the phototrophic bacteria as major constituents of the bacterial flora of photosynthetic sludge was also demonstrated by chemical analysis of photopigments therein.
View full abstract