ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1556537
Effect of different bulking agents on the quality, microbial community structure and metabolic functions during human feces composting in foam composting device
Provisionally accepted
- 1Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tianjin, China
- 2Key Laboratory of Rural Toilet and Sewage Treatment Technology, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin, China
- 3Tianjin Municipal Engineering Design & Research Institute Co.,Ltd., Tianjin, China
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Aerobic composting represents an efficacious strategy for the disposal of human feces, yet investigations into the effects of different bulking agents on this process remain limited. This study investigated the effects of composting human feces with four types of bulking agents -wheat straw, corn straw, millet straw, and sawdust -in a foam composting device, as well as the impacts of the process on the microbial community structure and metabolic functions adopting sequencing data analysis and metagenomic analysis. The results demonstrate that aerobic composting can safely treat human feces, resulting in a mature compost product. Comparative assessments of compost quality and microbial profiles with various bulking agents indicated superior performance of corn straw compost, surpassing those produced with wheat straw, millet straw, and sawdust in terms of humification level (HA/FA = 2.9), peak temperature reached (71.2 ℃ ), composting duration (20 days), and nutrient composition (TN 42.87 g/kg). Additionally, the diversity and dominance of certain microbial colonies (Firmicutes, Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, and Bacteroidota) were significantly higher in composts formulated with corn straw. The metagenomic data analysis reveals significant differences in the abundance of "carbon metabolism" and "microbial metabolism" among different groups, further indicating that the 3 addition of different bulking agents affects the utilization of metabolic products, amino acids, and carbohydrates as carbon sources by microbes in human feces compost. Consequently, leveraging corn straw as a bulking agent, given its abundant availability, could potentially improve the efficiency and outcome of the human feces composting process.
Keywords: Human feces, Bulking agent, Compost quality, microbial community structure, metabolic functions
Received: 08 Jan 2025; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ning, Zheng, Liang, Wang, Zhang, Wei and Tan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiaocheng Wei, Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tianjin, China
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