Effect of microbial inoculation on physicochemical properties and bacterial community structure of citrus peel composting

In this study, microorganisms were inoculated during citrus peel composting for citrus waste recycling and valorisation. The physicochemical properties and the bacterial community structure of citrus peel composting inoculated microorganism were studied. The thermophilic stage of pilot-scale composting (T2) was 20 days longer than lab-scale composting (T1). C/N, organic matter, moisture, pectin and cellulose content decreased along with composing process, but the pH, soluble protein and total nutrient showed an opposite trend. The inoculation improved the richness and diversity of the bacterial community and the diversity index reached maximum on 21 days. As composting progress, Bacillus, Sphingobacterium and Saccharomonospora in inoculum became the dominant genus. Redundancy analysis showed that C/N, pectin degradation rate and temperature could explain 30.1%, 24.9% and 15.6% of the variation in bacterial genera, respectively.