Composting of model kitchen waste using tempeh and tapai as microbial inoculants

In this study, the composting materials consisting of model kitchen waste, dried leaves and rice bran were inoculated with four formulation of microbial inoculants namely 100% Tempeh (Te), 100% Tapai (Ta), 50% Tempeh +50% Tapai (Te+Ta), Effective MicroorganismTM (EM) and water as control. It was found that the temperature of all four composting materials with microbial inoculants can be heat up to temperature above 50oC than the control. The enzymatic activities were not able to indicate significant differences between the inoculated compost against the control. The highest activity of amylase (73-129 U/g) and cellulase (75-148 U/g) occurred at the beginning of the composting process. The maximum activities of lipase (5- 10 U/g) and protease (46-72 U/g) were observed at the middle stage of the composting process. However, the results suggested that Tempeh and Tapai can be used as microbial inoculants to degrade kitchen waste as their performance was comparable with EM. The necessities of using inoculants in composting of kitchen waste need to be further verified by maturity, stability and quality test on the matured composts

A review on application of microorganisms for organic waste management

The extensive utilisation of microorganisms namely fungi and bacteria for treating organic wastes has been attributed to their efficiency in eliminating pathogen and accelerating the degradation process. Their uses have been found considerably efficient for enhancing waste treatment. Among many methods employed, composting mediated by indigenous microbial communities has gained significant popularity in treating organic waste. Use of cellulolytic microorganisms to expedite the degradation rate of wastes, notably the lignocellulosic components, may prove useful. This paper reviews the application of microorganisms in the waste management technologies that include anaerobic digestion and composting of organic waste with a high lignocellulosic portion, composting of heavy metal contaminated organic waste, and composting at low temperature

Physico-chemical and biological changes during co-composting of model kitchen waste, rice bran and dried leaves with different microbial inoculants

Disposal of food waste either by land-filling or incineration will cause environmental pollution and engaged in high treatment cost. Composting can be a viable food waste management, however, less research works have focused on the degradation of small scale kitchen waste. In this study, co-composting of model kitchen waste, dried leaves and rice bran were inoculated with four different sources of microbial inoculants (MI) namely commercial Effective Microorganism (EM), Tempeh, Tapai, a mixture of Tempeh and Tapai and water as a control. It was found that the temperature of all four composting materials with MI can be heated up to a higher temperature (>50 \xB0C) than the control and produced less offensive smells. All composts ended with a neutral or weakly alkaline pH value (pH 7 - 8) and a C:N ratio of around 10 which indicating the maturation of composts. For enzymatic activities, the highest activity of amylase (73 - 129 U/g) and cellulase (75 - 148 U/g) occurred at the beginning of the composting process. The maximum activities of lipase (5 - 10 U/g) and protease (46 - 72 U/g) were at the middle stage of the composting process. The germination indexes of the five composts were larger than 100 indicating non-phytotoxic. Although the temperature profile and odour performance were outstanding in the presence of MI, most other parameters did not show significant differences when co-compositing of small scale model kitchen waste was carried out with an adequate initial C:N ratio and moisture content. Further study is needed to distinguish the potential beneficiary effects of MI for the composting of kitchen waste. Nevertheless, the comparable performance of Tempeh and Tapai with EM in composting suggested that Tempeh and Tapai can be used to substitute the function of EM as a cheaper and more available microbial source for the household

Feasibility study of composting and anaerobic digestion plant at community scale in Malaysia

Abstract: Malaysia is in a transition state towards a more developed country which stresses on sustainable development. The Malaysia government has introduced several policies related to the installation of renewable energy to secure its energy demand, which has an annual growth rate of 8.1%. In the Iskandar region in Johor, low-carbon development projects have been continuously implemented under the low-carbon society blueprint for Iskandar Malaysia. The selected village, Layang-Layang, is located within a palm oil plantation and is part of Malaysia rural transformation centre (RTC) project where a community-composting pilot plant was successfully set up in 2016. This study analysed the environmental and economic performance of the community-composting project. A total of four scenarios is analysed regarding their environmental performance (greenhouse gas emission) and the economic returns of investment. Scenario A served as the baseline study where all the municipal waste is sent to a landfill site. Scenario B involved the current pilot-scale composting plant practised by 100 residents in Layang-Layang. Scenario C considered the scaled-up composting scenario (3000 residents) based on the data from scenario A and B in Layang-Layang. Scenario D considered the treatment of the municipal wastes (3000 residents) to generate biogas via anaerobic digestion (AD) where the digestate was used for composting. In this study, co-composting of food waste from a residential area with the green waste from the plantation showed a reduction potential of 96.79% (Scenario C) on greenhouse gas (GHG) emission as compared to the landfill (Scenario A) and a reduction of 99.67% on GHG emission for the integrated AD and composting system (Scenario D). The scaled-up composting in scenario C was more attractive for investment as compared to scenario D. Scenario C showed a shorter minimal year for the return of investment (3.09 years) as compared to Scenario D (6.17 years) with electricity generation from biogas