The effect of lignocellulolytic bacteria consortium on composting empty oil palm fruit bunches

Abstract

Oil palm empty fruit bunches (OPEFB) are waste produced by palm oil mills from processing fresh fruit bunches into oil. For every 1 tonne of fresh fruit bunch (FFB) processing, 21–23% EFB will be produced. EFB can be used as compost. OPEFB compost has considerable potential because it contains complex nutrients (macro and micro). The OPEFB composting process has problems because of the lignin content which causes the decomposition process to take a long time so that microorganisms are needed that can accelerate the OPEFB decomposition rate. This study aimed to test the ability of lignolytic bacteria from larvae of Oryctes rhinoceros L. plus cellulolytic bacteria from organic waste that have the potential to decompose OPEFB. This research was conducted experimentally using a non-factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) consisting of eight treatments. The results showed that the administration of cellulolytic bacterial isolates had a significant effect on water content, compost weight loss, pH, C-Organic, C/N ratio and P nutrient content, but had no significant effect on N and K nutrient levels. Treatment of lignocellulolytic bacteria ORL9 and ORL6 and a consortium of cellulolytic bacteria showed good compost quality, which could be seen from the parameters of weight loss of compost, pH, N nutrient content and reduced C/N ratio.