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ARS Home » Plains Area » Lubbock, Texas » Cropping Systems Research Laboratory » Cotton Production and Processing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #65692
Title: EVALUATION OF PRE-SEPARATORS AND CYCLONES FOR COLLECTING TRASH FROM STRIPPER COTTON

Author
item Baker, Roy
item Gillum, Marvis
item Hughs, Sidney

Submitted to: Cotton Ginners' Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/10/1996
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Cotton gins have utilized cyclone collectors for the simultaneous collection of large trash and finely divided dust for many years. Many of the most efficient cyclones, however, were designed as dust collectors and were not intended to be used for the collection of large, bulky trash material. Some gins have experienced trash chokage problems in the transition and narrow inlet of these modern cyclones as well as wear problems with both the older and modern designs due to the presence of sand and other abrasive particles in coarse cotton gin trash. It stands to reason that the life of a cyclone could be greatly extended by removing most of the abrasive material ahead of the cyclone collector. It also seems logical that pre-separation of bulky trash could reduce the chokage problems that sometimes plague modern cyclones. There is also a feeling in the industry that overall dust collection efficiency could be improved if the large trash were separated prior to final dust collection. The purpose of this investigation was to obtain additional information on the benefits of pre-separation under conditions representative of cotton gins processing stripper harvested cotton. Several combinations of pre-separators and cyclones were evaluated for the collection of gin trash from stripper cotton. A pre-separator reduced dust emissions from some of the cyclones designs investigated, but not all designs. A pre-separator actually tended to increase emissions from some types of cyclones due to a problem of lint re-circulation in the cyclone's cone section near the trash outlet.

Technical Abstract: Three experiments were conducted to evaluate several combinations of pre- separators and cyclones for the collection of gin trash from stripper cotton. Pre-separator efficiency increased as the critical velocity inside the pre-separator decreased. A 90-percent-efficient pre-separator design reduced dust emissions from a 2D2D cyclone by about 9 percent, but offered no such improvements for a 1D3D cyclone. In 2 of 3 experiments the pre- separator actually tended to increase emissions from the 1D3D cyclone. This adverse effect was attributed to a problem of lint re-circulation in the cyclone's cone section near the trash outlet. Pre-separation tended to exacerbate this problem, especially for the 1D3D cyclone.