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This study addresses the management of kitchen waste by transforming it into biofertilizer formulations, utilizing an effective, in-house-developed multi-enzyme preparation. An approach consisting of separate hydrolysis and fermentation bioprocessing processes was used, employing a multi-enzyme preparation from Aspergillus niger P-19 to separately hydrolyze kitchen waste, followed by the fermentation of the hydrolysate for the growth of Klebsiella pneumoniae AP-407, which has biofertilizer traits. This has led to the simultaneous generation of liquid as well as carrier-based biofertilizer formulations with viable cell counts of 3.00 × 1012 CFU/mL and 3.00 × 1012 CFU/g, respectively. Both biofertilizer formulations significantly enhanced the morphometric characteristics and leaf chlorophyll contents of Tagetes erecta, in addition to enriching the soil with essential nutrients. The current study adopted a novel processing technology for the manufacturing of both carrier and liquid biofertilizers, adopting a zero-waste approach for the management of kitchen waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Various agricultural and kitchen waste residues were assessed for their ability to support the production of a complete cellulase system by Aspergillus niger NS-2 in solid state fermentation. Untreated as well as acid and base-pretreated substrates including corn cobs, carrot peelings, composite, grass, leaves, orange peelings, pineapple peelings, potato peelings, rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, saw dust, wheat bran, wheat straw, simply moistened with water, were found to be well suited for the organism’s growth, producing good amounts of cellulases after 96h without the supplementation of additional nutritional sources. Yields of cellulases were higher in alkali treated substrates as compared to acid treated and untreated substrates except in wheat bran. Of all the substrates tested, wheat bran appeared to be the best suited substrate producing appreciable yields of CMCase, FPase and β-glucosidase at the levels of 310, 17 and 33U/g dry substrate respectively. An evaluation of various environmental parameters demonstrated that appreciable levels of cellulases could be produced over a wide range of temperatures (20–50°C) and pH levels (3.0–8.0) with a 1:1.5 to 1:1.75 substrate to moisture ratio. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]