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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Cotton Ginning Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #99422
Title: CYCLONE EFFICIENCY SENSITIVITY TO ENTRANCE VELOCITY

Author
item Funk, Paul
item Hughs, Sidney
item Baker, Roy

Submitted to: National Cotton Council Beltwide Cotton Conference
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/5/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Cotton gins are under increasing pressure to reduce dust emissions. A cost effective device most gins use to remove particles from exhaust air is the high efficiency cyclone. Because of past ARS research, these cyclones have been modified to improve their performance. Further studies were needed to find the optimum operating speed of the modified cyclones. Scale models of modified high efficiency cyclones typically found in cotton gins were tested using gin trash. The operating speed resulting in the lowest dust emissions was about 3,000 feet per minute, slightly lower than their design speed. These results need to be confirmed by testing full sized cyclones. If the same observation is made, cotton gins will be able to both reduce fan energy consumption up to 13 percent and slightly lower their dust emissions. Other industries that process agricultural materials using cyclones will also benefit.

Technical Abstract: Four versions of a 1D3D type cyclone were tested at four entrance velocities. The cyclones tested were a standard 1D3D design, a 1D3D with a 2D2D air inlet, a 1D3D with a D/3 trash outlet, and a 1D3D with both a 2D2D air inlet and a D/3 trash outlet. Air containing a heavy load of gin trash was fed to the cyclones. Dust escaping with the clean air was captured on pre-weighed filter membranes. The cyclone catch was also weighed. The design with both modifications had the highest efficiency. The highest efficiency for all designs occurred at entrance velocities near 3,000 fpm.