Sustainable oil palm biomass waste utilization in Southeast Asia: Cascade recycling for mushroom growing, animal feedstock production, and composting animal excrement as fertilizer

Abstract

Palm oil production has increased greatly due to its high stability and growing global population, causing the waste generated by the palm oil industry to grow rapidly. Research utilizing palm oil waste as a substrate for mushroom cultivation is currently ongoing in palm oil-producing countries. This research explores the possibility of utilizing oil palm waste-based mushroom cultivation medium as feedstock for goats and further extends the experiment to the use of excrement as compost material for B. campestris. In this research, we report that oil palm trunk (OPT) and fermented empty fruit bunches (FEFBs) as mushroom cultivation substrates produce yields of 98.3 and 97.2 g/bottle, respectively, while the conventional substrate produces 96.6 g/bottle, showing similar yields but with reduced cultivation time. The in vivo digestion experiments showed no significant differences in the total digestible nutrient (TDN) content between the control group and the group that used fermented total mixed ration (TMR) feed containing 10% palm biomass spent mushroom substrate (SMS). Although the plant height and fresh and dry weights of B. campestris were higher in the excrement-treated groups than in the control group, the germination rate was lower, although the difference was not significant. Based on these results, it was shown that palm biomass could be used in cascade recycling through edible mushroom substrates to livestock feed and compost, thereby adding value to palm biomass.