Browsing by Author "Faulkner, William Brock"
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Item Development of a Cottonseed Dehulling Process to Yield Intact Seed Meats(2013-04-22) Nunneley, Jacob LawrenceWith recent genetic advances in development of gossypol-free cotton varieties, there is interest in retrieving undamaged, dehulled cottonseed kernels for development of new food and feed products. Current methods used to dehull cottonseed provide a low turnout of undamaged kernels that would be desirable for new market niches where intact kernels are desirable. The first objective of the described work was to develop a process for dehulling fuzzy cottonseed to render a high percentage of undamaged seed meats. A series of methods were tested and optimized to identify the suite of processes that provided the highest yields. The final process included steam conditioning, cracking and dehulling using roller mills, and finally separating kernels from hull material using a roller separator and air aspirator. The reintroduction of un-dehulled seed to the roller mills for a second pass significantly increased the final yield of undamaged seed meats. Lab-scale tests show that yields of 65% to 70% can be obtained using this process, representing a significant increase over conventional dehulling, which typically results in less than 5% yields of undamaged kernels. The second objective of the research was to integrate components of the lab-scale milling process into a continuous-flow, pilot-scale system. The performance of the milling system with and without steam conditioning was evaluated. Pilot-scale, continuous-flow tests resulted in undamaged kernel yields of 67.9 ? 3.0% (mean ? 95% confidence interval) during wet milling, comparable to results of initial batch processing and far exceeding yields of whole kernels from current milling techniques. During dry milling, the efficiency of the system to extract all possible kernel material was found to be 68 ? 2.9%, but most of the resulting kernel material is in broken fragments between 3.35 mm and 0.706 mm in diameter.Item The effects of inlet velocity and barrel diameter on cyclone performance(Texas A&M University, 2006-08-16) Faulkner, William BrockCyclone separators are widely used in agricultural processing industries as air pollution abatement devices. The performance of cyclones is a function of the geometry of the cyclone, operating parameters, and the particle size distribution (PSD) of the entrained aerosol. Multiple models have been proposed to predict the performance of cyclones given different geometric proportions, but many of these models do not quantify changes in performance with changes in inlet velocity or cyclone diameter given fixed geometric proportions. The Texas A&M Cyclone Design (TCD) method is a simple method for designing cyclones based on an inlet design velocity. The TCD method specifies ??ideal?? inlet velocities of 975 ?? 120 m/min (3200 ?? 400 fpm) and 914 ?? 120 m/min (3000 ?? 400 fpm) for 1D3D and 2D2D cyclones, respectively. However, there is evidence that higher dust collection efficiencies may be obtained from cyclones using different inlet velocities than those specified as the ??ideal?? velocity. Furthermore, the TCD method assumes that cyclone performance is independent of cyclone diameter. The present research demonstrates that, for large particles, the collection efficiency of 15.24 cm (six inch) diameter 1D3D and 2D2D cyclones is similar for inlet velocities from 10.16 standard m/s (2000 fpm) up to the design velocity, with significantly lower pressure drop at lower inlet velocities, resulting in lower energy requirements. However, the performance of cyclones is a function of cyclone diameter. Using similar operating parameters, the collection efficiency of a 60.96 cm (24 inch) diameter 1D3D cyclone was significantly lower (α = 0.05) than that of a 15.24 and a 30.48 cm (6 and 12 inch) diameter cyclone, and the collection efficiency of a 91.44 cm (36 inch) cyclone was significantly lower (α = 0.05) than that of a 60.96 cm (24 inch) diameter cyclone. The results of this research suggests the need for a new mathematical model to predict the performance of cyclones.