Abstract. Survival of microorganisms in soils from treatment facility and landfill of wooden railway sleepers contaminated with creosote oil as well as in two types of soils with different content of organic carbon, treated with creosote oil vapors, was assessed. Microbiological assays including determination of: the biomass of living microorganisms method and the number of proteolytic, lipolytic and amylolytic microorganisms were carried out under laboratory conditions. Chromatography analysis of the soil extract from railway sleepers treatment facility was performed using GC/MS. The highest biomass and the number of tested microorganisms were determined in soils from wooden railway sleepers landfill, while the lowest in soil from the railway sleepers treatment facility. Vapors of creosote oil, regardless of the soil type, significantly increased only the number of lipolytic bacteria.

Dobek T.K., Šařec P., Kołosowski P., Šařec O. (2017): Effect of chopped maize straw on the quantity and quality of biogas produced. Res. Agr. Eng., 63 (Special Issue): S8-S12.The increase in production costs of maize silage intended for biogas has led the producers to look for alternative sources of raw material. One of such materials is straw of agricultural crops, including maize. The use of lignin-cellulose materials, such as straw, by bacteria in a biogas fermenter is limited by its polymer structure. Therefore, it is required to process the straw before it is introduced into the biogas fermenter, which may allow to increase the biogas potential of straw. The simplest way of straw processing is its chopping. On the basis of the obtained results, it can be said that cutting the straw did not help increase the amount of biogas produced, but even limited the potential of this raw material.

Despite the large potential of straw as a substrate for biogas production, its use is marginal at present. This is mainly due to the structure of materials of that type, where cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin prevail [Mussato and Teixeira, 2004; Adapa et al., 2009; Chaturvedi and Verma, 2013]. Such a structure prevents the effective use of straw by biogas reactor microflora [Frei, 2013]. Great hopes are placed on the possibility of using microorganisms in the straw pretreatment [Dorado et al, 1999; Feng et al., 2012].

Intensive breeding is related to formation of considerable amount of manure which may be used as a natural fertilizer. Manure fertilization may cause reduction of the amount of applied mineral fertilizers and thus reduction of production costs. It may particularly relate to the species with great fertilization requirements such as winter rapeseed. The objective of the research was to compare economic efficiency of rapeseed production in two farms which use different fertilization variants. In one, only mineral fertilizers were used and in the second one – mineral fertilization was supplemented with manure organic fertilization. The use of manure caused reduction of expenditures on materials and raw materials used in production, in particular of fertilizers. At comparable yields obtained by two farms, technology based on manure fertilization proved to be more efficient.

Abstract. The aim of study was to determine the impact of three different biogas fermentation residues on some chemical and biochemical characteristics in sandy soil. The laboratory experiment was carried out on loamy sand. Residues were added to soil samples in the forms of pulp, drought, and granulate at dosages of 10, 50, and 100 g·kg -1 . The reference was the soil sample without residues. On day 28, the content of macroelements and heavy metals was determined. In addition, on days 1, 7, 14, 28, and 56, the content of biomass and the activities of some hydrolases and oxidoreductases were assayed. Results showed that the application of all fermentation residues caused an increase in most of the chemical parameters. The highest impact on pH and the content of Ctot, Ntot, Stot, K, and P was observed in the soil treated with granulate, whereas the increase in the content of heavy metals was the highest after the drought application. The effect of biogas fermentation residues on all hydrolases and o-diphenol oxidase activities was mostly significant, but depended on the kind of residues and the day of experiment. Biomass content and the activity of dehydrogenase were increased in the whole experiment.