Location: Cotton Production and Processing Research
Project Number: 3096-21410-009-000-D
Project Type: In-House Appropriated
Start Date: Apr 17, 2020
End Date: Apr 16, 2025
Objective:
OBJECTIVE 1: Develop commercially viable methods and technologies for use before ginning that reduce harvest costs, preserve fiber/seed quality, enhance the utilization of production/harvest/gin data, and prevent/minimize contamination of upland cotton.
Subobjective 1A: Assessing the influence of seed cotton storage in round modules on lint and seed quality.
Subobjective 1B: Improving the cleanliness and quality of stripper-harvested cotton through improved field cleaning systems.
Subobjective 1C: Development of equipment to detect and remove contaminants from cotton during the harvesting process.
OBJECTIVE 2: Enable commercially preferred technologies/methods/strategies for use in ginning upland cotton that improve cleanliness of seed cotton and lint, detect/remove contamination, preserve fiber quality, and reduce financial costs.
Subobjective 2A: Development of equipment to detect and remove contaminants from cotton in the harvest and ginning processes.
Subobjective 2B: Improving cotton fiber length distribution through novel lint cleaner design.
OBJECTIVE 3: Develop commercially viable post-ginning technologies/techniques that enhance the storage and utilization of upland cotton products/coproducts/byproducts and reduce the environmental footprint of cotton production/processing.
Subobjective 3A: Development of a commercially viable mechanical cottonseed delinting system to remove cotton linters and produce planting quality seed, without the use of chemicals.
Subobjective 3B: Reducing particulate emissions from cotton ginning through improved pollution abatement device design using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and laboratory testing.
Subobjective 3C: Develop and evaluate the use of cotton plant constituents and other natural fibers in the manufacture of composite materials.
Approach:
This five-year project plan addresses critical pre-ginning, ginning and post-ginning issues facing cotton producers and processors in the United States. Our plan of work is based on an interactive research approach which is focused on the development of processes and systems for preserving cotton quality during infield storage and ginning, removing foreign material and contaminants from seed cotton during harvesting and ginning, reducing particulate emissions from ag operations, reducing the environmental impact of acid cottonseed delinting, and increasing the value of cotton byproducts though composite materials. The research plan detailed herein addresses the development of new technologies, methods, and strategies for reducing the economic and environmental costs of cotton harvest, ginning, and post-gin processing of upland cotton and cotton by-products. Commercial viability of the research is a key component of any problem solution.
