Use of cotton gin trash (CGT) to form a biological lagoon sealant

Because of large volumes of cotton gin trash (CGT) and limited options for correct disposal of CGT, a study was launched to find alternative uses for this material. The objective of this report was to explore the possibility of using CGT as a waste lagoon sealant. CGT was applied in 0, 5, and 10 cm layers in 10.15 cm ID acrylic columns with three replicates per treatment. A sandy loam soil was used as a base and as a top soil to hold the CGT in place. The columns were subjected to a constant head of filtered tap water. Static compaction was applied at day 7 and kneading compaction at day 12. The columns were destroyed and concentrations of bound extracellular polysaccharides were measured at day 15. A high correlation (R2=0.95) between total EPS concentration and cumulative hydraulic conductivities was observed. The final average hydraulic conductivity of the columns was 2.2 × 10-6 cm/s, 2.2 × 10-6 cm/s, 1.0 × 10-5 cm/s for the 5 cm CGT layer, 10 cm CGT layer, and control columns, respectively. The 5 cm layer had lower hydraulic conductivity and total pollutant loading than the 10 cm layer, suggesting an optimum layer thickness is less than 10 cm. The study suggested that CGT plus compactive effort has excellent potential for sealing waste lagoons.