Location: Cotton Quality and Innovation Research
2022 Annual Report
Objectives
The U.S. cotton industry has a number of current problems, including plastic contamination of modules, bales and finished products, increasing competition from man-made fibers, and the need to improve the sustainability of the industry. Over the next five years, we will work to develop methods to remove contaminants from fiber, improve industry sustainability through increased efficiency in the movement of bales from field to market, reduce energy consumption during processing, address concerns about micro-fiber generation, and improve the understanding of length and nep content in cotton to better compete with man-made fibers.
Objective 1: Develop on-bale and seed-cotton fiber quality measurements to provide real-time feedback to ginners and warehouses on fiber quality.
Sub-Objective 1A: Develop and implement methods to measure color and leaf grade on cotton bales as they are produced.
Sub-Objective 1B: Develop and implement methods to utilize the fiber maturity of seed cotton to improve the fiber quality of ginned lint.
Objective 2: Develop methods to detect and remove contaminants from ginned cotton fiber during commercial processing.
Sub-Objective 2A: Perform fate analyses on plastic contaminants during textile processing.
Sub-Objective 2B: Implement machine modifications to improve removal of plastic contaminants during processing.
Sub-Objective 2C: Develop a low-cost contamination detection and removal system.
Sub-Objective 2D: Use blending and processing parameter changes to improve the processing of cotton samples that have been contaminated with entomological sugars.
Objective 3: Develop methods to better measure fiber length distributions and nep content.
Sub-Objective 3A: Implement a capacitance measurement for producing a more accurate fibrogram from a cotton beard.
Sub-Objective 3B: Develop techniques to extract nep data from a fiber bundle.
Objective 4: Reduce the energy used in the post-ginning commercial processing of cotton.
Sub-Objective 4A: Study fiber-seed attachment force at a practical scale and identify cultivar-attachment force relationships.
Sub-Objective 4B: Identify fiber quality parameters that affect fiber frictional characteristics.
Objective 5: Identify links between fiber properties, textile construction, and micro-fiber generation during the lifecycle of commercial cotton products.
Sub-Objective 5A: Construct a device to monitor micro-fibers produced during dry abrasion of fabrics.
Sub-Objective 5B: Understand the roles of fiber quality, yarn construction and fabric construction in micro-fiber generation during abrasion.
Approach
The U.S. cotton industry faces several problems, including contamination, competition from man-made fibers, and the need to improve sustainability. These problems will be addressed by developing methods to remove contaminants, improving the movement of bales from field to market, developing a better understanding of cotton fiber length and fiber entanglements (i.e., nep content), reducing processing energy costs, and understanding micro-fiber generation. The first objective will provide bale quality properties to ginners and warehouses by developing a robotic measurement platform to capture digital images as bales are produced. The images will be used to determine some fiber properties, and the data will allow gins to address quality issues in real-time, creating a more uniform and higher quality cotton that can better compete with man-made fibers. The data will enable warehouses to implement new strategies for the movement of bales from field to market, which will reduce the frequency of bale movements and reduce the energy used in staging bales. Contamination, a major issue impacting U.S. cotton, will be addressed by conducting processing trials that will provide information on the disposition of contaminants during textile processing. This data will be used to help design machinery modifications that aid in the removal of contaminants. Additionally, a low-cost system for the detection and removal of contamination as the fiber is cleaned will also be designed and built. Improved competition with man-made fiber will be achieved in the third objective through improved measurements of cotton properties. Improved fiber length measurement and high-speed measurement of neps, will aid mills in utilizing cotton, and the creation of new measurements will allow for the more predictable processing of cotton. Improving the sustainability of cotton is addressed in the fourth and fifth objectives. Reducing the energy used in the commercial processing of cotton can be achieved by developing practical methods for estimating the fiber-seed attachment force and fiber friction, which will be achieved by monitoring the energy used to gin cotton at a laboratory scale. Developing this knowledge will allow for seed attachment force to be considered when breeding improved cotton varieties. The fifth objective will identify links between fiber and textile properties and the amount of micro-fibers generated during the lifecycle of commercial textiles. Micro-fibers will be collected from dry fabric abrasion experiments, and methods will be developed to characterize and quantify the micro-fibers generated.
Progress Report
Progress was made on all objectives of this project under National Program 306, Component 2, Non-Food Product Quality and New Uses. Despite nearly half a year of maximized telework, there has been significant progress on the research project. Progress in achieving some objectives of the project plan has been made through collaborations with ARS, university, and stakeholder projects. ARS researchers have collaborated to address the measurement of energy during cotton processing and to develop ways to reduce plastic contamination in cotton. Partnering with collaborators allows for an industry-wide approach to solving problems.
The cotton bale quality measurement system being developed (Objective 1) has undergone field testing in a commercial gin, and the design has been refined and simplified to lower cost and increase reliability. The revised design collected bale measurements on over 3,000 commercial samples during an abbreviated trial. Further improvements have been made to the leaf grade algorithm and lighting issues in the imaging system have been addressed to reduce glare and increase consistency between images. Additional trials are planned for the 2022-23 ginning season. One critical goal for the past year was to image more diverse bales and the 2021-22 season provided the most diverse set of samples collected so far in this project.
Work on Sub-objective 1B, the utilization of fiber maturity to improve the quality of ginned lint, has not progressed as well as other objectives. Additional samples have been gathered; however, ginning trials have not been conducted. Data from previous work on the ginning of cottons with different maturity levels will be utilized to keep the progress on this sub-objective on schedule.
ARS researchers at New Orleans, Louisiana, conducted processing trials in the textile pilot plant and at a research ginning facility to address plastic contamination in ginned lint (Objective 2). We tested multiple weights, sizes, and thicknesses of plastic to observe the aerodynamic behavior of the materials during processing. The results from these processing trials and previously conducted trials will guide the modifications of processing and machine parameters to enhance the passive removal of plastic contaminants during cotton processing. Trends were observed indicating that the plastic contaminant's mechanical properties influenced the contaminant's interaction with the airflow and machine components.
We examined yarns which were made with contaminated lint. Although from a mass balance point, the majority, over 90%, of plastic contamination is removed, on a number basis the number of pieces of contamination increases during processing due to the conversion of larger pieces into numerous small pieces. We discovered that the small pieces are more fiber-like in behavior and therefore the difficulty of removal increases. The smaller particles did not impact open-end spinning systems' production efficiency as much as ring spinning systems. The quality of yarn, for both appearance and strength, was significantly degraded by the presence of plastic contaminants.
Processing trials for cotton contaminated with excessive entomological sugars (Sub-objective 2D) were delayed due to personnel shortages and equipment issues during the period of maximized telework. It is anticipated that we can conduct these trials in early FY23.
The measurement of fiber length distributions and nep (fiber entanglements) content are of critical importance to the textile industry. To improve the measurement of these properties (Objective 3), we collected a large number of fiber samples which have been tested using traditional methods and novel capacitance-based techniques. The capacitance-based measurements are able to measure length distributions with higher resolution than the traditional electro-optical methods. Samples with a wide range of length distributions and nep contents have been tested using capacitance-based measurements. The length distribution results are being compared to traditional methods to assess the potential for more information to be gathered from the higher resolution capacitance measurements. We are analyzing the raw data from the capacitance signal for fluctuations which may be due to corresponding mass changes within the sample due to the presence of fiber entanglements known as neps.
We are making progress on the reduction of energy used in the commercial processing of cotton (Objective 4) thanks to collaborations with ARS research unit in Stoneville, Mississippi. We developed a single board microprocessor data logger to record the energy consumption of a tabletop gin. The data logger design was improved upon by a collaborator from the Cotton Ginning Research Unit to increase the sampling rate. Data collected during benchtop ginning trials initially appeared too noisy to be of value; however, statistical analysis of the data revealed that useful information was captured, and software scripts are being developed to streamline the extraction of useful data from the energy trials. Results from these trials are being used to identify sources of error to allow for the efficient measuring of cotton-seed attachment force through tabletop ginning. Combining ginning energy with static and dynamic friction measurements that have been collected will provide a new tool for understanding the interaction of many fiber properties and their role in determining energy consumption during processing.
Understanding microfibers and the role of textiles in generating microfibers has remained an area of interest for the textile industry (Objective 5). We designed a system to operate a Martindale tester inside of an enclosed area with the ability to collect microfibers that are generated during the abrasion of fabrics. We conducted studies to identify appropriate settings for abrasion pressure and the number of cycles. Fabrics of known fiber content and construction have been collected to create a set of materials to establish baseline conditions. We are beginning work on a method to characterize the microfibers being generated for their length, diameter, and other physical attributes.
Significant progress has been made in developing a dashboard for accessing National Cotton Variety Test data as well as current and archived on-farm variety trial data provided by collaborators at Cotton Incorporated. This work was carried out as part of the “Partnerships for Data Innovation” effort and allows for data to be stored with AgCROS (Agricultural Collaborative Research Outcomes System).
Additionally, we made progress in establishing a program to develop methods to characterize industrial hemp fibers. We obtained industrial hemp fiber samples through ARS, university, and industry partners. These fiber samples represent the wide range of characteristics common to industrial hemp, including length, fineness, and non-fibrous content. Work is underway to assess the ability of existing fiber test methods to characterize hemp and identify the areas most in need of research to allow for the development of a domestic industrial hemp production platform.
Accomplishments
1. Visualization of cotton leaf grade measurements. The cotton industry has adopted instrument rating of bales for non-lint content, otherwise known as leaf grade. Originally a visual observation, leaf grade is now determined instrumentally. ARS researchers in New Orleans, Louisiana, have developed an in-house data visualization and look-up table that maps the relationship of the total number of particles and percentage of the sample that is not lint with one of eight industry-defined leaf grades. This information is integral for developing new automated leaf grade measurement systems and will be available to researchers through a Partnerships for Data Innovation dashboard.
Review Publications
Kim, H.J., Delhom, C.D., Liu, Y., Jones, D.C., Xu, B. 2021. Characterizations of a distributional parameter that evaluates contents of immature fibers within and among cotton samples. Cellulose. 28:9023-9038. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-021-04135-8.
Funk, P.A., Thomas, J.W., Yeater, K.M., Armijo, C.B., Whitelock, D.P., Wanjura, J.D., Delhom, C.D. 2022. Saw thickness impact on cotton gin energy consumption. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 38(1):15-21. https:///doi.org/10.13031/aea.14535.
He, Z., Liu, Y., Kim, H.J., Tewolde, H., Zhang, H. 2022. Fourier transform infrared spectral features of plant biomass components during cotton organ development and their biological implications. Journal of Cotton Research. 5:11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42397-022-00117-8.
Edwards, J.V., Prevost, N.T., Yager, D., Mackin, R.T., Santiago Cintron, M., Chang, S., Condon, B.D., Dacorta, J. 2022. Ascorbic acid as an adjuvant to unbleached cotton promotes antimicrobial activity in spunlace nonwovens. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23073598.
He, Z., Liu, Y. 2021. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic analysis in applied cotton fiber and cottonseed research: a review. Journal of Cotton Science. 25(2):167-183.
