Involvement of microbial populations during the composting of olive mill wastewater sludge

Olive mill waste water sludge obtained by the electro-Fenton oxidation of olive mill waste water was composted in a bench scale reactor. The evolution of microbial species within the composter was investigated using a respirometric test and by means of both cultivation-dependent and independent approaches (Polymerase Chain Reaction-Single Strand Conformation Polymorphism, PCR SSCP). During the period of high respiration rate (7-24 days), cultivation method showed that thermophilic bacteria as well as actinomycetes dominated over eumycetes. During the composting process, the PCR-SSCP method showed a higher diversity of the bacterial community than the eukaryotic one. After 60 days of composting, the compost exhibited a microbial stability and a clear absence of phytotoxicity.