초록
<P><B>Background</B></P><P>Utilization of lignocellulosic feedstocks for bioenergy production in developing countries demands competitive but low-tech conversion routes. White-rot fungi (WRF) inoculation and ensiling are two methods previously investigated for low-tech pretreatment of biomasses such as wheat straw (WS). This study was undertaken to assess whether a combination of forced ensiling with <I>Lactobacillus buchneri</I> and WRF treatment using a low cellulase fungus, <I>Ceriporiopsis</I><I>subvermispora</I>, could produce a relevant pretreatment effect on WS for bioethanol and biogas production.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>A combination of the ensiling and WRF treatment induced efficient pretreatment of WS by reducing lignin content and increasing enzymatic sugar release, thereby enabling an ethanol yield of 66 % of the theoretical max on the WS glucan, i.e. a yield comparable to yields obtained with high-tech, large-scale pretreatment methods. The pretreatment effect was reached with only a minor total solids loss of 5 % by weight mainly caused by the fungal metabolism. The combination of the biopretreatments did not improve the methane potential of the WS, but improved the initial biogas production rate significantly.</P><P><B>Conclusion</B></P><P>The combination of the <I>L. buchneri</I> ensiling and <I>C. subvermispora</I> WRF treatment provided a significant improvement in the pretreatment effect on WS. This combined biopretreatment produced particularly promising results for ethanol production.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-016-0437-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>