Comparison of three soil-like substrate production techniques for a bioregenerative life support system Original Research Article

It is very important to recycle the inedible biomass of higher plants to improve the closure of bioregenerative life support system (BLSS). Processing candidate higher plant residues into the soil-like substrate (SLS) as the plant growth medium is a promising way to achieve. In this study, three different processing techniques of SLSs, using residues of wheat and rice as feedstock, were compared. As for the first traditional technique, SLS1 was obtained by successive conversion of wheat straw by oyster mushrooms and worms. In the other two methods, SLSs were produced with aerobic fermentation (SLS2) or anaerobic fermentation (SLS3) followed by worm conversion. The changes in SLS cellulose, lignin, available elements and pH were measured during the production processes. The maturity was evaluated by the value of C/N. The fertilities were compared in terms of available elements contents and lettuce productivities. The results indicated that the second technique was optimal, whose process cycle was 30 days less than that of SLS1. The total cellulose and lignin degradation of SLS2, achieved 98.6% and 93.1% during the 93-days-processing, and the lettuce productivity reached 12.0 g m−2 day−1.