ABSTRACT

Economically productive alternatives to gin trash disposal would benefit the ginning industry. Combining gin and dairy wastes in a two-phase anaerobic system produces methane gas and a class A soil amendment. This optimization experiment indicated process completion in three weeks is possible with temperatures above 32 C (90 F), mixture ratios above 5:1 (gin to dairy waste, dry basis) and twice daily wetting of the solid phase. Ten percent of the mass was converted to soluble chemical oxygen demand, which potentially can be converted to methane in the second phase, at from 70 to 80% concentration. Fecal coliform and salmonella bacteria counts fell even though temperatures were below the pasteurization level.