Fuel use patterns in cotton gins

Authors: Funk, Paul; Hardin Iv, Robert

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/21/2017
Publication Date: 5/31/2018
Citation: Funk, P.A., Hardin Iv, R.G. 2018. Fuel use patterns in cotton gins. National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference. p. 870-873. Available: https://www.cotton.org/beltwide/index-printable.cfm?page=proceedings.

Interpretive Summary: Energy costs of ginning continue to increase proportional to other operating expenses, and vary significantly from one facility to another. These disparities indicate an opportunity for improvement and the need to identify best practices that other facilities can emulate. Reducing energy consumption would not only mitigate a significant expense, improving ginning economics, but reducing fossil fuel consumption and related emissions would also improve sustainability through the cotton-based textiles supply chain. Owners and managers of commercial gins cooperated to allow USDA-ARS employees to obtain fuel use audit data. Air flow and temperature gain was used to estimate burner fuel consumption, and changes in moisture content through a drying system were estimated by taking samples before and after each stage. Fuel use efficiency was calculated by dividing drying energy by burner fuel energy content. Looking at facility differences showed that insulated drying systems made better use of fuel than drying systems that were not insulated and locating burners near the material pick-up point also improved energy utilization.

Technical Abstract: Energy costs represent 20% of the total cost of ginning; a national industry survey found that fuel costs vary from $0.23 to $9.07 per bale; these disparities indicate an opportunity for improvement and the need to identify best practices that other facilities can emulate. Reducing energy consumption would not only mitigate a significant expense, improving ginning economics, but reducing fossil fuel consumption and related emissions would also improve sustainability through the cotton-based textiles supply chain. Owners and managers of commercial gins cooperated to allow USDA-ARS employees to obtain fuel use audit data. Air flow and temperature gain was used as a surrogate for burner fuel consumption, and changes in moisture content through a drying system were estimated by taking samples before and after each stage. Looking at facility differences in fuel use efficiency indicated best practices: insulated drying systems made better use of fuel than drying systems that were not insulated; locating burners proximate to the pick-up point also improved energy utilization.