Characterization of cotton gin byproducts produced by various machinery groups used in the ginning operation

Byproducts produced from cotton gins have commonly been referred to as tras h since they were deemed to have little value. However in some areas of the cotton belt, the byproducts have been utilized successfully. Cotton gin by products (CGB) have been fed to livestock, used to make compost, bedding fo r daily cattle, or applied back on the land to add humus To the soil. Over the years, extensive research has been performed in evaluating and creating uses for CGB. Almost without exception, all research pertaining to utiliza tion of CGB has evaluated or measured some aspect of the product to determi ne a desired or needed characteristic pertaining to a specific research obj ective or goal. Currently cotton gins produce various streams of byproducts due to the design and layout of the equipment used in the ginning process. In most every case, the byproducts are combined into a single waste stream and sent to a central location. The objective of this research was to char acterize the various parameters of the individual waste streams prior to th eir being combined, to ascertain if the ginning equipment was sorting the b yproducts into components that had more desirable characteristics to potent ial end users. Our results showed that the extractors, lower gin motes, gin stand feeder, overflow separator and lint cleaners produced a product with more desirable characteristics for livestock feeding and fuel utilization than those byproducts from the inclined cleaners and unloading system.