Enhancement of Agro-Industrial Waste Composting Process via the Microbial Inoculation: A Brief Review
Mohd Huzairi Mohd Zainudin,
Aisyah Zulkarnain,
Ain Sahira Azmi,
Shalini Muniandy,
Kenji Sakai,
Yoshihito Shirai,
Mohd Ali Hassan
Affiliations
Mohd Huzairi Mohd Zainudin
Laboratory of Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Aisyah Zulkarnain
Laboratory of Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Ain Sahira Azmi
Laboratory of Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Shalini Muniandy
Laboratory of Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Food Security, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Kenji Sakai
Laboratory of Soil and Environmental Microbiology, Division of Systems Bioengineering, Department of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Graduate School of Bioresources and Bioenvironmental Sciences, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
Yoshihito Shirai
Department of Biological Function and Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and System Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu-ku, Fukuoka 808-0196, Japan
Mohd Ali Hassan
Department of Bioprocess Technology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang 43400, Selangor, Malaysia
Composting is an important technology used to treat and convert organic waste into value-added products. Recently, several studies have been done to investigate the effects of microbial supplementation on the composting of agro-industrial waste. According to these studies, microbial inoculation is considered to be one of the suitable methods for enhancing the biotransformation of organic materials during the composting process. This review provides up-to-date research findings on microbial inoculation strategies and their role and functions in enhancing the composting process and the improvement of compost quality. Based on this review, the addition of microorganisms could enhance the composting process such as accelerating the organic matter degradation, mineralization and microbial enzymes activities, and the quality of the end-products such as high germination index. It is important to notice in this strategy that sludge’s microbial consortium is feasible to enhance the composting process in pilot-scale and industrial-scale productions. Besides, it also reduces the cost of compost production. The findings of this review show the various positive impact of microbial inoculation on agro-industrial waste composting which in turn might be useful as a reference for selecting a suitable inoculum based on the type of waste materials.
