Non-traditional applications of cotton are being explored to create new sustainable products and new markets. Advanced Cotton Laboratory at Lubbock-based Texas Tech University has been exploring new opportunities for cotton, for a few years now. Research has resulted in biodegradable oil absorbent, new green process to dewax cotton, and identify molecular markers for cotton’s comfort property.
A five-member delegation from Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), a public sector undertaking under the Central Ministry of Textiles, Government of India visited Lubbock this week to explore the United States’ cotton sector. The team was also interested in knowing about new cotton products and opportunities.
The team was interested in evaluating the cotton-based oil absorbent wipe technology developed at Texas tech University using low micronaire cotton, which is discounted.
The technology worked well and received positive feedback from the Indian cotton experts, who analyse cotton fibers daily. The evaluation of the absorbent technology using motor oil is provided in the YouTube video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKh6J8XCH54
“Research on low micronaire cotton is a useful value-addition work on cotton for application in the automobile sector. Furthermore, we can use low micronaire cotton in different segments like, if any oil container fell in the oceans, then biodegradable oil sorbent can recover oil from the spill, which indeed is a very big research achievement in the cotton industry, stated Manish Rawat, of CCI, Mumbai, who did hands-on experiment to validate the technology.
Arjunsinh Dave, of CCI, Rajkot, Gujarat, which is the largest cotton growing state in India, enthusiastically evaluated the cotton technology and stated, “the cotton absorbent product will result in the industrial utilization of low micronaire cotton which will be a tremendous new opportunity for the cotton industry.â€Â
The next phase of the cotton sector is to explore new technologies from farm to fashion to enhance the use and sales value of cotton.
– Seshadri Ramkumar, Texas Tech University, USA