Cotton Delinting Facility

Introduction

This technology is a pollution free cotton seed delinting plant. It has been developed for the cotton growing industry with the intention of providing a process for obtaining cottonseed in an environmentally friendly manner. One of the basic requirements for high productivity of cotton crop is delinted cotton seed. The process of harvesting cotton involves first sending the cotton to a gin where the cotton fiber is separated and baled for all the products made of the cotton fiber. What remains are cotton seed linters which are composed of the seed and the fibrous fuzzy materials or "linters" that are attached. The industry needs the seed for future crop production; however, the linters are an impediment to successful high yield planting and as a result need to be removed. The process of separating the linters from the cotton seed is called delinting. The delinting process involves either the use of hydrochloric acid which crystallizes the lint and in following steps causes the lint to fall off the seed or sulphuric acid which dissolves the lint and leaves clean seed. The technology for this report is a process which avoids sulphuric acid and has engineered a system to capture the hydrochloric acid gas and ammonia gas to provide a pollution free delinting process.

Potential Benefits of The Technology

• The technology provide a delinting process which avoids sulphuric acid
  
• It controls the emission of hydrochloric gas and ammonia gases through an air pollution control system.
  
• It allows an effective delinting process for the cotton industry in a pollution free process.
  

Source: Vinod Kalbande,
Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation
E-mail: vinodkalbande@yahoo.co.in