Abstract
Vertical-elutriator cotton-dust samplers collect all particles with aerodynamic diameters < 15 μm, including those whose origin is not in the cotton supply. One process giving rise to such non-cotton dust particles is the spray-drying of dissolved solids in the water supplied to the plant humidification system. Based on a survey of plant production, ventilation, and ambient conditions, it is shown that a cost-effective strategy for reducing the concentration of "cotton dust" in the atmosphere of textile plants could be to remove the dissolved solids from the water supplied to the humidification system to prevent their release in the plants as respirable dust. It is estimated that when atomizers are used for humidification, dust removal by deminer alization of the water supplied to the atomizers can be achieved at a fraction of the cost (1/30th to 1 /9th) compared with the cost of removing an equivalent amount of dust by conventional air-filtration technology. For humidification supplied exclusively by air-washer systems, the benefits of supply-water demineralization are not as dramatic.
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