Complying with Dust Emissions Regulations

USDA-ARS-SWCGRL Dust Cyclone Research Projects

The cotton ginning industry is meeting the challenge of increasingly stringent environmental
regulations by improving dust cyclone performance. This proactive approach has resulted in
successful compliance without adding cost-prohibitive hardware and without significantly
increasing energy consumption. This work has been a collaboration between industry,
university and USDA-Agricultural Research Service groups and individuals.

As an example of this teamwork, ideas generated by industry professionals were tested at
Texas A & M University, scaled up and verified at the USDA-ARS Lab in Mesilla Park, then
confirmed on full sized equipment at the USDA-ARS Lab in Lubbock before being published
as best available control technology. Improving the performance of dust cyclones has saved
the ginning industry (and other agricultural enterprises) significant capital expense as
dust cyclones are elegantly simple for their considerable effectiveness. With no moving
parts, they require little maintenance and consume moderate amounts of energy, resulting
in operating cost savings over using other dust collection technology.

Modeling Dust Cyclones with Computational Fluid Dynamics/Finite Element Analysis

Emperical Analysis of Various Dust Cyclone Designs

Publications:

2004. Baker, K. D., Funk, P. A. and Hughs, S. E. Over-sized cyclones for low pressure cotton gin exhausts. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 20(4):413-415.
2001. Funk, P. A., Hughs, S. E. and Holt, G. A. Dust cyclone design. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 17(4):441-444.
2001. Holt, G. A., Laird, J. W., Baker, R. V. and Funk, P. A. Calculated verses measured pressure losses for two seed cotton unloading systems. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 17(4):465-473.
2000. Funk, P. A., Hughs, S. E. and Holt, G. A. Entrance Velocity Optimization for Modified Dust Cyclones. Journal of Cotton Science 4:178-182.

Last Updated 08 April 2005