Ga. Holt et al., Characterization of cotton gin byproducts produced by various machinery groups used in the ginning operation, T ASAE, 43(6), 2000, pp. 1393-1400
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.