AHCL Gas for Cotton Seed Delinting

The Cotton is an important cash crop in India. The fuzzy cotton seed has to be delinted to get away with many disadvantages of fuzzy cotton seed sowing. The pollution free cotton seed delinting technology has been developed by Maharashtra State Seeds Corporation Limited, Akola. The cotton seed delinting plant of one ton per hour capacity has been designed and developed and has been used successfully and commercially. The MSSCL had come out with HCL gas generation method without using Sulphuric acid. Compressed Anhydrous hydrochloric (AHCL) gas in cylinders is now used for cotton seed delinting. AHCL pure gas compressed at 63 kg/cm² in cylinders is available in the market. This AHCL gas is highly corrosive and compressed at high pressure in the cylinders and has to be withdrawn through Manifold system consists of stainless steel 316 L made tubes, valves, gauges, and pigtails. The pressure of AHCL gas is lowered in three stages to bring it down to 2 kg/cm². The Manifold system delivers the compressed AHCL gas from cylinders to the delinting machine through gas flow meter calibrated to measure the AHCL gas in kg/min. The quantity of AHCL gas, pressure of AHCL gas in cylinders manifold delivery system are discussed alongwith advantages of using AHCL gas in cylinders instead of generating AHCL gas from HCL acid at plant.