Wood-feeding termites as an obscure yet promising source of bacteria for biodegradation and detoxification of creosote-treated wood along with methane production enhancement

This study aims to explore distinct bacterial strains from wood-feeding termites and to construct novel bacterial consortium for improving the methane yield during anaerobic digestion by degrading birchwood sawdust (BSD) and removing creosote (CRO) compounds simultaneously. A novel bacterial consortium CTB-4 which stands for the molecularly identified species Burkholderia sp., Xanthomonas sp., Shewanella sp., and Pseudomonas mosselii was successfully developed. The CTB-4 consortium showed high efficiency in the removal of naphthalene and phenol. It also revealed reduction in lignin, hemicellulose, and cellulose by 19.4, 52.5, and 76.8%, respectively. The main metabolites after the CRO degradation were acetic acid, succinate, pyruvate, and acetaldehyde. Pretreatment of treated BSD mixed with CRO enhanced the total methane yield (162 L/kg VS) by 82.7% and biomass reduction by 54.7% compared to the untreated substrate. CRO showed a toxicity decrease of >90%, suggesting the efficiency of constructed bacterial consortia in bioremediation and biofuel production.

Automated summary

The study successfully developed a novel bacterial consortium CTB-4 which showed high efficiency in removing toxic compounds and increasing methane production, providing new possibilities for bioremediation and biofuel production.