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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 #177905
Title: PRELIMINARY EVALUATION OF THE BAFFLE-TYPE PRE-SEPARATOR IN TERMS OF BAFFLE LOCATION, CRITICAL AIR VELOCITY, AND LOADING RATE

Author
item BUSER, MICHAEL
item Whitelock, Derek
item Holt, Gregory
item Armijo, Carlos
item WANG, LINGJUAN - NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIV

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/1/2005
Publication Date: 6/20/2005
Citation: Buser, M.D., Whitelock, D.P., Holt, G.A., Armijo, C.B., Wang, L. 2005. Preliminary evaluation of the baffle-type pre-separator in terms of baffle location, critical air velocity, and loading rate. In: Proceedings of the Beltwide Cotton Conference, January 4-7, 2005, New Orleans, Louisiana. p. 469-485. 2005 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary: Some cotton gins across the cotton belt use an abatement system consisting of a baffle-type pre-separator followed by cyclones to control the emission being emitted from the cotton gins' various exhausts. Very limited information exists in the literature which discusses the effects of baffle location and critical velocity on the pre-separator's collection efficiency. In this study, a range of critical air velocities and loading rates was evaluated to determine the effect of baffle location of the pre-separator's collection efficiency when using cotton gin waste. Results from the study indicated that the pre-separator's collection efficiency was higher when the baffle was located closer to the pre-separator's inlet. At a given baffle location, the pre-separators collection efficiency decreased as the airflow rate increased. The pre-separator treatments did not affect the overall abatement system collection efficiency that averaged about 95%. Under the best settings, the baffle-type pre-separator removed 81% of the material entering the abatement system.

Technical Abstract: An abatement system consisting of a baffle type pre-separator followed by an over-sized 1D-3D cyclone was evaluated over a range of pre-separator critical velocities and loading rates. The range of critical velocities was determined by varying the position of the baffle and varying the airflow rate entering the system. The loading rates evaluated in the study did not affect the over-sized cyclone or overall collection efficiency. The overall system collection efficiency ranged from 95.0 to 95.8% over the entire range of critical velocities evaluated. The collection efficiency of the over-sized cyclone ranged from 75.5 to 83.6% over all treatments. The collection efficiency of the baffle type pre-separator ranged from 73.2 to 81.2% over all treatments. The pre-separator's collection efficiency was higher when the baffle was placed at one-third the overall width of the pre-separator from the inlet and was decreased as the airflow rate was increased at a give baffle location. The sieve analysis indicated that the pre-separator removed the majority of material larger than 0.17 mm; however, the pre-separator did allow a substantial amount of lint to pass through to the cyclone.