Pilot-Scale Production of Washed Cottonseed Meal and Co-Products

Abstract

Enhanced utilization of defatted cottonseed meal (CSM)-based products as biobased raw materials would increase the profitability of cotton growers and processors. In this work, a multiple-step procedure that can be used to produce water washed cottonseed meal (WCSM) and a co-product water soluble cottonseed protein (CSPw) from CSM was tested at pilot scale. Alternatively, the procedure can also be used to produce CSPw, alkali soluble protein (CSPa) and the protein extracted insoluble residue (CSIR). The chemical composition of these pilot-produced products was generally comparable to that of the corresponding laboratory-prepared products. The fiber content was higher in the pilot-produced WCSM than in laboratory-produced product mainly due to the higher fiber content in the mill-based starting meal material used in the pilot trial. The protein content in the pilot-produced CSPw was only 64.4% of the solid matter, indicating that additional rinse is needed before drying the HCl-precipitated CSPw fraction. Per the yield and composition data, it was concluded that it was feasible to produce the four products WCSM, CSPw, CSPa, and CSIR from CSM in a large scale. Thus, adoption of this procedure would provide the necessary quantities for exploring the practical utilization of these products in biomaterial industry.

Surface Characterization of Cottonseed Meal Products by SEM, SEM-EDS, XRD and XPS Analysis

“…Ca, Cu, Na, Mg, K, and P) were also detected in the surface of these cottonseed meal products and soy protein powders. The percentage order of these minerals in the cottonseed meal products was similar to that in the bulk samples determined previously with ICP spectrometer after acid digestion (He et al, 2016c). However, the values of the percentages determined by SEM-EDS were lower by 30-50% (Table 1).…”

“…Mill-scale produced defatted cottonseed meal was provided by Cotton, Inc. (Cary, NC, USA) and was used as the starting material of the pilot-scale production of washed cottonseed meal and co-products as reported in He et al (2013a;2016c). The six products used in this work were one-step alkali-extracted cottonseed protein isolate (CSPI) and the extraction residual (CSRi), water-soluble protein fraction (CSPw) and alkali-soluble protein fraction (CSPa) and the residual (CSIR) from sequential extraction of cottonseed meal by deionized water and 0.015 M NaOH, and washed cottonseed meal (WCSM).…”

“…Recent work (Cheng et al, 2013;He et al, 2014a;2014b;He and Chiozza, 2017) has shown that two cottonseed meal products, washed cottonseed meal (WCSM) and cottonseed protein isolate (CSPI), could be used as "green" wood adhesives. He et al (2016c) further scaled up the production of WCSM and co-products from laboratory 10-g levels to pilot production levels of 10-lb (4.54 kg) starting material. Generation of a sizable volume of cottonseed meal-based products set the foundation for further promoting the enhanced utilization of cottonseed meal-based products as biobased raw materials.…”

Adhesive Strength of Pilot-Scale-Produced Water-Washed Cottonseed Meal in Comparison with a Synthetic Glue for Non-Structural Interior Application

“…WCSM was prepared from mill-produced cottonseed meal in a pilot scale (He et al, 2016e), and its basic properties were listed in Table 1. Beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) with a density of 695 ± 15 kg m -3 and regular grain as specified in EN 205 (2016) was used for the preparation of the various specimens.…”

“…Indeed, WCSM showed the adhesive performance comparable to cottonseed protein isolate (He et al, 2016c(He et al, , 2016d. Recently, the product WCSM was produced in a pilot scale, yielded adequate amounts for practical application evaluation per industrial standards (He & Cheng, 2017b;He et al, 2016e). Thus, to promote WCSM as an industrial wood adhesive for non-structural application, in this work, we tested the WCSM's adhesive performance in reference to the relevant European industrial standards.…”