New Focus on Cotton Webcast Offers Energy-Saving Tips for Cotton Gins
September 20, 2018 A new webcast – titled “Saving Energy in Cotton Gins” – has been added to the Focus on Cotton online series from the Plant Management Network and Cotton Incorporated.
Energy costs represent 20% of the total cost of ginning and vary widely across facilities. Identifying best practices for reducing energy consumption is important to gin owners, managers, and operators.
This 9½ minute presentation by Paul A. Funk, agricultural engineer for the USDA–ARS, Southwestern Cotton Ginning Research Laboratory in Mesilla Park, NM, makes energy-saving recommendations based on energy audits and monitoring studies conducted at more than 30 commercial cotton gins across the U.S. Cotton Belt. Key recommendations address pneumatic conveying and fuel consumption:
- Pneumatic conveying represents 50% of the electrical energy used by a typical gin. Usage can be reduced by sealing leaks in air ducts, minimizing turbulence before and after fans, reducing pressure drops by simplifying flow paths, and using mechanical conveyors where practical.
- Fuel consumption represents 6-8.5% of the total cost of ginning. Usage can be reduced by insulating the hottest ducts, minimizing the distance between burners and cotton pickup points, and adding automatic controls with temperature sensing in recommended locations.
Funk also points out that environmental stewardship and economic sustainability are both served through improved energy use.
Energy costs represent 20% of the total cost of ginning and vary widely across facilities. Identifying best practices for reducing energy consumption is important to gin owners, managers, and operators.
The Focus on Cotton series contains more than 75 webcasts on various aspects of cotton crop management, including agronomic practices, crop protection, harvest and ginning, soil health and fertility and precision agriculture. The presentations are accessible online at any time without a subscription.
The resource also provides access to Cotton Cultivated, a new resource from Cotton Incorporated to help users quickly find the most current cotton production information available.
Based on information from The Cotton Board
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