Corn silage was treated by white rot fungi (WRF) to investigate the effect of pretreatment on material's ability to produce methane in anaerobic digestion (AD). The selective fungi Pleurotus ostreatus and Dichomitus squalens promoted biogas generation, whereas the non-selective Trametes versicolor and Irpex lacteus had negative effect. Cumulative methane production after 10-day pretreatment with P. ostreatus at 28 °C rose 1.55-fold. The longer pretreatments of 30 and 60-days had smaller effect. When the pretreatment with P. ostreatus was carried out at 40 °C a high H2S release affected the AD process. Effect of WRF action dependent on the type of corn silage. With typical corn silage, the lignin depolymerisation raised the methane generation from 0.301 to 0.465 m3kgVS-1. In contrast, extensive decomposition of hemicellulose in hybrid corn silage deteriorated the effect of pretreatment on methane production.

Institute of Environmental Technology CEET VSB Technical University of Ostrava 17 Listopadu 15 2172 Ostrava Poruba 708 00 Czech Republic

Institute of Environmental Technology CEET VSB Technical University of Ostrava 17 Listopadu 15 2172 Ostrava Poruba 708 00 Czech Republic; Department of Biology and Ecology Faculty of Science University of Ostrava Chittussiho 10 710 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Institute of Environmental Technology CEET VSB Technical University of Ostrava 17 Listopadu 15 2172 Ostrava Poruba 708 00 Czech Republic; Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Vídeňská 1083 142 20 Prague 4 Czech Republic

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