Agricultural Research Service

July 7, 2000

This invention is for the COBY (COtton BYproducts) process system that allows producers to turn cotton byproducts into livestock feed, fertilizer, fuel, and/or mulch while reducing the wear on processing machinery. Byproducts or trash-sticks, burs, staple lint and seed-produced from the cotton ginning process are often wasted because of the high expense of conventional processes for their conversion to useful value-added products. The high cost of these processes is due in large part to the abrasiveness of the byproducts, which inflict extensive wear on the processing machinery. Conversely, byproduct disposal can be costly, troublesome, and environmentally challenging, reducing producer profits. With COBY, byproducts from the gin, textile mill, oil mill, or other similar cotton/cottonseed processing agricultural facilities can be treated with a gellable polysaccharide such as a starch solution, thereby significantly reducing their abrasiveness while at the same time enhancing the final product. The polysaccharide treated byproducts may then be ground and compacted to form any of the value-added products of interest. Byproducts can be easily converted into value-added products using the COBY process, with little cost to producers. This method improves the marketability of cotton byproducts.

Gregory A. Holt Cropping Systems Research Lubbock, TX 79401 (806) 746-5353 / Fax: (806) 744-4402

Joseph W. Laird (Same address as first inventor)