| Abstract: | Most of the annual crop of cotton is harvested and stored for the entire crushing season until the new crop year begins. It is desirable to have specific heat data of agricultural materials so the engineer can manage the heat transfer problem associated with each crop during storage. Thermal properties of agricultural products, such as cottonseed and its oil mill co-products, are not commonly available. Partially because these materials are bulky and lack uniformity, their thermal properties are difficult to assess precisely. The highly sensitive and large-sample volume differential scanning calorimeter has made the precise determination of specific heat of agricultural material possible. This report describes a procedure used to obtain the specific heat of white cottonseed and its co-products as a function of temperature. The materials tested included cotton fiber, whole cottonseed, linters, hulls, meats, and meal. Specific heat values of these materials ranged from 0.32 to 0.6 cal/g/°C at 30°C and 0.42 to 0.72 cal/g/°C at 90°C. When these materials were dried, the values converged to 0.24 to 0.33 cal/g°C at 30°C. |
