Use of the co-composting time extract agar to evaluate the microbial community changes during the co-composting of activated sludge and date palm waste

This study investigates changes in the microbiologicalcommunity of two co-composting mixtures ofactivated sludge and date palm waste over a 6-month period.The use of the co-composting time extract medium toevaluate the abundance of cultivable indigenous microflorashowed that the total microbial biomass was higher duringthe thermophilic phase. The mesophilic microflora wasmore abundant than the thermophilic bacteria, throughoutthe co-composting process. The proportion of mesophilicand thermophilic actinobacteria was high during thematuration phase especially for mixture A. However,thermotolerant fungal microflora increased during thethermophilic stage. Furthermore, correlating physico-chemicalanalysis of samples with bacterial diversity indicatedthat the bacterial communities underwent temperaturechanges. Enterococci and thermotolerant coliforms decreasedsignificantly toward the end of the co-compostingprocess which indicates the safety and sanitization of theend product.