Engineering analysis and economic impacts of air pollution abatement strategies for cotton gins Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Cotton gins emit particulate and lint fiber into the atmosphere as a result of the ginning process. All the gins in Texas are required to install a minimum of Baseline Best Available Control Technology (BBACT) in order to obtain a permit to construct or operate. Gins that are located in densely populated areas or those which are in violation of the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) regulations may be required to install additional controls to come into compliance. TNRCC permit engineers have the authority to require the installation of additional controls to reduce emission factors. The selection of the control strategies is the prerogative of the ginner. However, some control strategies may result in the cotton gin going out of business. The definition of BACT incorporates a phrase that requires consideration for economic reasonableness. It is the premise of this research that a cotton ginner will be able to utilize the requirement that a mandated BACT abatement system must include consideration of 'economic reasonableness' to negotiate an appropriate abatement strategy. Several additional air pollution abatement strategies using combinations of cyclones, rotary drum filters, and baffle type pre-separators have been defined. Procedures to estimate costs of equipment and emission factors for various abatement equipment are described in detail. Models to determine the costs of cyclones and to simulate the ginning volumes for cotton gins in Texas were developed. Two criterions (return on investment and cost per ton of reduced emissions) were proposed to define economic reasonableness.

published proceedings

  • Proc. of Beltwide Cotton Conf. Jan 1997, New Orleans, LA, USA

author list (cited authors)

  • Ramaiyer, A., Parnell, C. B., Shaw, B., Flannigan, S., & Fritz, B.

complete list of authors

  • Ramaiyer, A||Parnell, CB||Shaw, B||Flannigan, S||Fritz, B

publication date

  • December 1997