A cottonseed processing parameter control system

Abstract

This invention discloses a cottonseed processing parameter control system, belonging to the field of plant extraction. It includes a cotton kernel screening system, an leaching system, a drying system, and a parameter control system. An infrared scanning device detects the number of cotton hulls and the protein content in the material before it enters the softening pot. The parameter control system controls the fan and air-separation regulating valves, adjusts the air volume, air pressure, and air speed in the cotton kernel screening device, controls the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot to be between 1% and 8%, and controls the fluctuation of the cotton hull content throughout the entire production process to within ±0.5%. During the leaching process, the color and concentration of the circulating liquid are monitored in real time, and the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leacher is controlled accordingly. This invention effectively solves the problems of difficult precise control of protein content and unsatisfactory kernel-hull separation leading to low cotton kernel purity in existing technologies.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to the field of plant extraction and cottonseed processing, specifically to an intelligent control system for cottonseed protein processing based on infrared scanning and moisture measurement. Background Technology

[0002] Cottonseed is one of China's four major oilseeds. The kernel of cotton has an oil content as high as 40%, and is rich in fatty acids and protein, with a protein content of up to 39%. As an important plant protein resource, the global annual cottonseed production is about 30 million tons, and China accounts for one-third of the global cottonseed production, making it the world's largest cotton-producing country.

[0003] Conventional finished cottonseed protein is classified into three types based on protein content: 46%, 50%, and 60%. Cottonseed hulls contain approximately 4% crude protein, while cotton kernels contain 42%. Therefore, when producing protein from cottonseed, the higher the hull content in the kernels, the lower the protein content in the finished cottonseed after defatting. For example, when producing products with 46% and 60% protein content, the kernel and hull contents in the raw materials used should differ significantly. Currently, precise control of the finished product's protein content is a major challenge in cottonseed protein production. In existing technologies, cottonseeds vary in size. If the same dehulling process is used for larger and smaller cottonseeds, the quality of the resulting kernels will differ, making kernel-hull separation difficult to control. This often results in a certain amount of hull mixed in with the separated kernels, leading to a lower protein content in the final product. Furthermore, there are still issues that urgently need improvement and resolution regarding the kernel content in the finished cottonseed hulls, the hull content in the processed cottonseeds, residual protein oil, and gossypol. Therefore, developing an intelligent control system that can achieve precise control of protein content during cottonseed protein production is of great significance.

[0004] Chinese patent document CN110302714A involves detecting and grading the protein powder content, then formulating it according to requirements. This method can only slightly stabilize the protein content but cannot solve the problem of protein content fluctuations at the source. Chinese patent document CN223435907U adjusts the water addition after detecting the protein content. This method can only improve the stability of the protein content index by reducing the product's protein content, but cannot increase the actual protein content, thus its process control effectiveness is limited. Chinese patent document CN103992877B controls the oil color by monitoring the oil's color and adjusting the proportion of excipients. While effective in adjusting oil color, it is powerless to regulate protein content.

[0005] Existing cottonseed protein production systems lack precision in cotton kernel sorting, making it difficult to further screen out cotton kernels with and without husks, which affects the purity and protein content of the cotton kernels. In existing cottonseed protein production processes, parameters such as the contact time and amount of material with the solution in the extractor still rely mainly on manual adjustment, resulting in long reaction times and poor adjustment precision, which in turn affects the purity and quality of cottonseed protein.

[0006] In existing technologies, the coordination between various steps in the cottonseed protein production process (such as hulling, crushing, leaching, desolventizing and drying) is insufficient, making it difficult to achieve efficient overall process optimization. This has affected the overall quality and production efficiency of cottonseed protein. Summary of the Invention

[0007] The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a cottonseed processing parameter control system that can effectively solve the problems of low cottonseed purity caused by the difficulty in accurately controlling the protein content and the unsatisfactory separation effect of the kernel and husk during the production of cottonseed protein in the existing technology.

[0008] To solve the above-mentioned technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present invention is as follows: A cottonseed processing parameter control system includes a cotton kernel screening system, an leaching system, a drying system, and a parameter control system; The cottonseed screening system includes a cottonseed screening device, a blower, and an infrared scanning device for detecting the number of cotton hulls and protein content in the material before it enters the softening pot. The cottonseed screening device is connected to the blower through an air separation regulating valve. The parameter control system adjusts the air volume, air pressure, and air speed of the blower's air separation regulating valve according to the data on the number of cotton hulls and protein content scanned by the infrared scanning device. This allows the cottonseed screening device to separate the cottonseeds and cotton hulls after crushing, controlling the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot to be between 1% and 8%, and controlling the fluctuation of the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot when producing the same finished cottonseed protein product to be within ±0.5%. The leaching system includes an extractor, a color monitoring device, and a flow control valve. The extractor is used to degrease and remove phenol from softened, pressed, expanded, and conditioned cotton kernels. During the degreasing and phenol removal process, the color and concentration of the circulating liquid are monitored in real time by the color monitoring device. The parameter control system adjusts the flow control valve according to the color change data of the circulating liquid in the extractor to control the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the extractor. The drying system includes a dryer, a steam extractor, and a near-infrared detection device arranged in sequence. The dryer is used to perform preliminary drying of the cottonseed meal after degreasing and dephenolization treatment. The steam extractor is used to further reduce the moisture content of the preliminarily dried cottonseed meal and treat the solvent residue in the cottonseed meal. The near-infrared detection device is used to monitor the moisture content, protein content, and residual oil of the cottonseed meal discharged from the steam extractor. The parameter control system adjusts the pressure of the heating steam and the opening degree of the heating valves of the dryer and the steam extractor according to the moisture and protein content results monitored by the near-infrared detection device.

[0009] A further improvement of the technical solution of the present invention is that the cotton kernel screening device adopts a multi-stage screen structure, and the aperture of the multi-stage screen is arranged from large to small between 6mm and 1.5mm.

[0010] A further improvement of the technical solution of the present invention is that: the infrared scanning device adopts a near-field infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±1%, the angle between the light source illumination angle and the material flow direction is ≤56°, and the Mahalanobis distance is ≤7; the air separation regulating valve adopts a frequency conversion solenoid valve with an adjustment range of 0-100%.

[0011] A further improvement of the technical solution of the present invention is that the parameter control system also adjusts the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leachate in the leaching system based on the residual oil data of cotton meal discharged from the desiccant of the drying system detected by the near-infrared detection device.

[0012] A further improvement of the technical solution of this invention lies in the following: the parameter control system includes a central controller and a human-machine interface. The central controller analyzes the data of the cotton kernel screening system, the leaching system, and the drying system and adjusts the working parameters of the corresponding equipment. The human-machine interface is used to display and input working parameters. The parameter control system also includes an equipment status monitoring and fault early warning program. When the equipment temperature, current, pressure, and equipment operating time exceed the thresholds set in the parameter control system, an alarm is triggered. Vibration sensors, temperature sensors, and current sensors are respectively installed on the cotton kernel screening device, the fan, the leacher, the dryer, and the evaporator. The parameter control system also includes a data storage module for storing historical production data and process parameters. The parameter control system analyzes the color and concentration of the circulating liquid in the leacher, the flow rate of fresh solvent, the leaching temperature, and the moisture and protein content of the material after evaporation, compares them with the working parameters manually input on the human-machine interface, and stores the optimal process in the data storage module.

[0013] The technological advancements achieved by this invention due to the adoption of the above technical solutions are as follows: (1) By scanning the number of cotton hulls in cotton kernels and the protein content in the material with infrared scanning and adjusting the air separation parameters in the screening system according to the feedback quantity, the cotton hull content in cotton kernels can be precisely controlled, which effectively solves the problem of uneven dehulling caused by the difference in cotton seed size in the existing technology and improves the purity and quality of cotton kernels. (2) By monitoring the color change of the circulating liquid in the extractor, the amount of fresh solvent replenished in the extractor is adjusted, which realizes precise control of the cottonseed protein extraction process, making defatting and dephenolization more complete, and improving the purity and quality of cottonseed protein. (3) By measuring the moisture content of the cotton meal produced by the steam desiccant, the valve opening of the dryer and the steam desiccant heating process is adjusted, thus achieving precise control of the moisture content of the cotton meal, ensuring the quality and performance of the final product, and controlling the fluctuation of crude protein content in the finished cotton meal within ±0.2%.

[0014] (4) This invention adopts a combination of infrared scanning to stabilize the number of cotton husks in cotton kernels and monitoring the moisture and protein content of cotton meal discharged from the steam dewatering machine to adjust the pressure of the heating steam and the opening of the heating valve. It establishes a complete control system for the protein content in the cottonseed protein production process from the front-end pretreatment to the back-end cotton meal drying, and realizes precise control of each process step from cotton kernel screening, softening treatment to steam dewatering, thereby improving the controllability and stability of the production process. (5) Through intelligent parameter adjustment and real-time monitoring mechanisms, the cottonseed protein production process has been automated and intelligentized, improving production efficiency and product quality consistency. Attached Figure Description

[0015] Figure 1 This is a process flow diagram of the present invention. Detailed Implementation

[0016] The present invention provides a cottonseed processing parameter control system, comprising a cotton kernel screening system, an leaching system, a drying system, and a parameter control system.

[0017] The cottonseed screening system includes a cottonseed screening device, a blower, and an infrared scanning device for detecting the number of cotton hulls and protein content in the material before it enters the softening pot. The cottonseed screening device is connected to the blower via an air-separation regulating valve. The parameter control system adjusts the airflow, air pressure, and air speed of the blower's air-separation regulating valve based on the data of the number of cotton hulls and protein content scanned by the infrared scanning device. This allows the cottonseed screening device to separate the cottonseed kernels and cotton hulls after crushing, controlling the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot to be between 1% and 8%, and controlling the fluctuation of the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot when producing the same finished cottonseed protein product to be within ±0.5%. The cottonseed screening device adopts a multi-stage screen structure, with the mesh size of the multi-stage screens arranged from large to small between 6mm and 1.5mm. The infrared scanning device uses a short-range infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±1%, an angle between the light source illumination angle and the material flow direction of ≤56°, and a Mahalanobis distance of ≤7; the air separation regulating valve uses a frequency conversion solenoid valve with an adjustment range of 0-100%.

[0018] The leaching system includes an extractor, a color monitoring device, and a flow control valve. The extractor is used to degrease and remove phenol from softened, pressed, expanded, and conditioned cotton kernels. During the degreasing and phenol removal process, the color and concentration of the circulating liquid are monitored in real time by the color monitoring device. The parameter control system adjusts the flow control valve according to the color change data of the circulating liquid in the extractor to control the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the extractor.

[0019] The drying system includes a dryer, an evaporator, and a near-infrared detector arranged sequentially. The dryer is used for preliminary drying of the degreased and dephenolized cottonseed meal. The evaporator is used to further reduce the moisture content and remove residual solvent from the pre-dried cottonseed meal. The near-infrared detector monitors the moisture, protein content, and residual oil of the cottonseed meal discharged from the evaporator. The parameter control system adjusts the pressure of the heating steam and the opening of the heating valves in the dryer and evaporator based on the moisture and protein content monitored by the near-infrared detector. The parameter control system also adjusts the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leaching unit in the leaching system based on the residual oil data of the cottonseed meal discharged from the evaporator detected by the near-infrared detector.

[0020] The parameter control system includes a central controller and a human-machine interface. The central controller analyzes data from the cotton kernel screening system, leaching system, and drying system and adjusts the operating parameters of the corresponding equipment. The human-machine interface is used to display and input operating parameters. The system also includes equipment status monitoring and fault early warning programs. An alarm is triggered when equipment temperature, current, pressure, or operating time exceeds thresholds set in the system. Vibration sensors, temperature sensors, and current sensors are installed on the cotton kernel screening device, fan, leacher, dryer, and desiccant, respectively. The system also includes a data storage module for storing historical production data and process parameters. The system analyzes data on the color and concentration of the circulating liquid in the leacher, fresh solvent flow rate, leaching temperature, and the moisture and protein content of the material after desiccant, comparing these data with the operating parameters manually input through the human-machine interface, and stores the optimal process in the data storage module. Example 1

[0021] The cottonseed processing parameter control system of this embodiment includes a cotton kernel screening system, an leaching system, a drying system, and a parameter control system. The cotton kernel screening system includes a cotton kernel screening device, a blower, and an infrared scanning device. The cotton kernel screening device adopts a three-stage screen structure, with apertures of 5.5mm, 4.5mm, and 1.5mm at each stage from top to bottom. The blower provides air to the cotton kernel screening device for screening cotton kernels through an air-selection regulating valve, which is a frequency conversion solenoid valve with an adjustment range of 0-100%. The infrared scanning device uses a near-field infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±0.5%, a light source illumination angle of 20° with the material flow direction, and a Mahalanobis distance of 2. This embodiment plans to produce cottonseed protein with a protein content of 60%, controlling the cotton kernel hull content in the material before entering the softening pot to 1.5%, and controlling the fluctuation of the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot within ±0.5% throughout the entire production process, i.e., the cotton kernel hull content can only fluctuate between 1% and 2%.

[0022] The leaching system in this embodiment includes a leachator, a color monitoring device, and a flow control valve. The leachator is a cable chain type and is used to degrease and remove phenol from softened, pressed, expanded, and conditioned cotton kernels. The leaching temperature is 55-60℃. During the degreasing and phenol removal process, the color and concentration of the circulating liquid are monitored in real time by the color monitoring device. The parameter control system adjusts the flow control valve according to the color change data of the circulating liquid in the leachator to control the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leachator. In this embodiment, the material-to-solvent ratio in the leachator is 1:1.0-1.3 (mass-volume ratio of material to solvent).

[0023] The drying system in this embodiment includes a dryer, an evaporator, and a near-infrared detector arranged sequentially. The dryer and evaporator dry the defatted and dephenolized cottonseed meal, and the evaporator also treats residual solvent in the dried cottonseed meal. The near-infrared detector monitors the moisture content, protein content, and residual oil in the cottonseed meal discharged from the evaporator. The parameter control system adjusts the pressure of the heating steam and the opening of the heating valves in the dryer and evaporator based on the moisture and protein content monitored by the near-infrared detector. The dryer is a disc dryer, and the evaporator is a DTDC evaporator with a direct steam pressure of 0.04 MPa and an indirect steam pressure of 0.35 MPa. The parameter control system adjusts the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leaching unit in the leaching system based on the residual oil data of the cottonseed meal discharged from the evaporator detected by the near-infrared detector, and controls the heating amount during the evaporation process by adjusting the pressure of the heating steam and the opening of the heating valves in the dryer and evaporator, thereby controlling the protein and moisture content after drying to 5%, ultimately obtaining a cottonseed protein content of 65 ± 0.1%. After the drying process, the residual oil content of the finished cottonseed was found to be 0.2%. Example 2

[0024] The difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 is that the cottonseed sieving device adopts a three-stage screen structure with screen apertures of 5.5mm, 4.5mm, and 2.0mm, respectively. The infrared scanning device uses a near-field infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±1%, an angle of 20° between the light source illumination angle and the material flow direction, and a Mahalanobis distance of 4. The husk content of the cottonseeds is controlled to be 3% before entering the softening pot. The material-to-liquid ratio in the extractor is 1:1.0-1.25. The heating amount during the evaporation process is controlled by adjusting the pressure of the heating steam in the dryer and the opening of the heating valve, thereby controlling the protein moisture content after drying to 8%, and finally obtaining a cottonseed protein content of 60±0.1%. After the drying process, the residual oil content of the finished cottonseed protein is detected to be 0.4%. Example 3

[0025] The difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 is that the screen apertures of the cottonseed screening device are 5.5mm, 4.5mm, and 3.0mm, respectively. The infrared scanning device uses a near-field infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±1%, an angle of 40° between the light source and the material flow direction, and a Mahalanobis distance of 4. The hull content of the cottonseeds is controlled to be 8% before entering the softening pot. The material-to-liquid ratio in the extractor is 1:0.9-1.10. The direct steam pressure of the steam extractor is 0.03MPa, and the indirect steam pressure is 0.30MPa. The heating amount during the steam extraction process is controlled by adjusting the pressure of the heating steam in the dryer and the steam extractor, as well as the opening of the heating valves, thereby controlling the protein moisture content after drying to 11%, ultimately obtaining a cottonseed protein content of 50±0.05%. After the drying process, the residual oil content of the finished cottonseed protein is detected to be 0.4%. Example 4

[0026] In this embodiment, the screen mesh sizes of the cottonseed sieving device are 5.5 mm, 4.5 mm, and 3.5 mm. The scanning accuracy of the infrared scanning device is ±1%, controlling the husk content of the cottonseeds to be 13% before entering the softening pot. The material-to-liquid ratio in the extractor is 1:0.8-1.0. The direct steam pressure of the steam extractor in the drying system is 0.02 MPa, and the indirect steam pressure is 0.30 MPa, controlling the protein moisture content after drying to be 12%, ultimately yielding cottonseed protein content of 46 ± 0.05%. After the drying process, the residual oil content of the finished cottonseed protein is detected to be 0.3%.

Claims

1. A cottonseed processing parameter control system, characterized in that: It includes a cotton kernel screening and processing system, an leaching system, a drying system, and a parameter control system; The cottonseed screening system includes a cottonseed screening device, a blower, and an infrared scanning device for detecting the number of cotton hulls and protein content in the material before it enters the softening pot. The cottonseed screening device is connected to the blower through an air separation regulating valve. The parameter control system adjusts the air volume, air pressure, and air speed of the blower's air separation regulating valve according to the data on the number of cotton hulls and protein content scanned by the infrared scanning device. This allows the cottonseed screening device to separate the cottonseeds and cotton hulls after crushing, controlling the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot to be between 1% and 8%, and controlling the fluctuation of the cotton hull content in the material entering the softening pot when producing the same finished cottonseed protein product to be within ±0.5%. The leaching system includes an extractor, a color monitoring device, and a flow control valve. The extractor is used to degrease and remove phenol from softened, pressed, expanded, and conditioned cotton kernels. During the degreasing and phenol removal process, the color and concentration of the circulating liquid are monitored in real time by the color monitoring device. The parameter control system adjusts the flow control valve according to the color change data of the circulating liquid in the extractor to control the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the extractor. The drying system includes a dryer, a steam extractor, and a near-infrared detection device arranged in sequence. The dryer is used to perform preliminary drying of the cottonseed meal after degreasing and dephenolization treatment. The steam extractor is used to further reduce the moisture content of the preliminarily dried cottonseed meal and treat the solvent residue in the cottonseed meal. The near-infrared detection device is used to monitor the moisture content, protein content, and residual oil of the cottonseed meal discharged from the steam extractor. The parameter control system adjusts the pressure of the heating steam and the opening degree of the heating valves of the dryer and the steam extractor according to the moisture and protein content results monitored by the near-infrared detection device.

2. The cottonseed processing parameter control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The cotton kernel screening device adopts a multi-stage screen structure, with the aperture of the multi-stage screen arranged from large to small between 6mm and 1.5mm.

3. The cottonseed processing parameter control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The infrared scanning device uses a short-range infrared sensor with a scanning accuracy of ±1%, an angle between the light source illumination angle and the material flow direction of ≤56°, and a Mahalanobis distance of ≤7; the air separation regulating valve uses a frequency conversion solenoid valve with an adjustment range of 0-100%.

4. The cottonseed processing parameter control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The parameter control system also adjusts the flow rate of fresh solvent entering the leaching unit in the leaching system based on the residual oil data of cotton meal discharged from the desiccant of the drying system detected by the near-infrared detection equipment.

5. The cottonseed processing parameter control system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The parameter control system includes a central controller and a human-machine interface. The central controller analyzes data from the cotton kernel screening system, leaching system, and drying system and adjusts the operating parameters of the corresponding equipment. The human-machine interface is used to display and input operating parameters. The parameter control system also includes an equipment status monitoring and fault early warning program. An alarm is triggered when the equipment temperature, current, pressure, and equipment operating time exceed the thresholds set in the parameter control system. Vibration sensors, temperature sensors, and current sensors are installed on the cotton kernel screening device, fan, leacher, dryer, and desiccant, respectively. The parameter control system also includes a data storage module for storing historical production data and process parameters. The parameter control system analyzes the color and concentration of the circulating liquid in the leacher, the flow rate of fresh solvent, the leaching temperature, and the moisture and protein content of the material after desiccant, compares this data with the operating parameters manually input on the human-machine interface, and stores the optimal process in the data storage module.

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