Paper Title
Waste Management In The Palm Oil Industry: A Case Study of Co-Composting of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunches And Decanter Cake Slurry

Abstract
When oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), waste from palm oil process contains oil that could impact on the environment when it was dumped on land, the EFB pressing was applied in the manufacturing process in order to recover oil and the EFB compost may be enhanced in the same time. Therefore this study aimed to investigate the effect of pressing on the EFB composting efficiencies in comparing with non-pressed EFB. The decanter cake was used as nitrogen supplement for composting. The initial C: N ratio was varied at 35: 1, 40: 1 and 45: 1 to study the optimal mixing ratio of composting materials. The experiment was done in pilot scale in the factory area. The result was found that the C:N ratio of both Pressed EFB and Non-Pressed EFB was decreased to be lower that 20:1 since before 15th day while the control of compost experiment cannot be terminated at 30th day. The nutrients element in compost products met the standard of compost product. While the composting time and product quality were not different between pressed and non-pressed EFB composting but the addition of EFB pressing step into palm oil process could recover oil by 1.22 % of oil content in EFB. The mixing ratio of pressed or non-pressed EFB and decanter cake was optimized at 45:1. Keywords- Composting, Palm Oil Empty Fruit Bunches (EFB), Decanter Cake Slurry