Page 8 - 08 Cotton SA March 2016

The Sustainable Cotton Cluster

“The results are in: Fuel from cottonseed is feasible”

Prof. Sanette Marx, Corneels Schabort, Roelf Venter – Northwest University

Unrefined cotton seed oil coming out of a mill.

Over the past year or so, researchers at the Northwest University
(NWU) in Potchefstroom have been doing pioneering research funded
by the Sustainable Cotton Cluster. Their work is part of the Cluster’s
research and development mandate to develop cotton by-products
that will increase the industry’s overall sustainability.

rof Sanette Marx and her team were contracted to encouraging results, and
determine whether cottonseed oil could be a viable source has since been awarded his
of paraffin/kerosene. “As far as we could find out, nobody degree.
Pelse in the world has done similar research with raw
pressed oil before,” says Prof Marx. “We were really excited to Prof Marx stresses that the
do the project.” Cluster project had merely
scratched the surface. “The
The Sustainable Cotton Cluster approached NWU as it is the only process involves a vast number of variables that should all be
university in South Africa doing renewable diesel research. “As investigated to determine how it can be refined and improved.”
we were already working with other oils, it was relatively simple A big and immediate challenge in this regard is to improve the
to insert cottonseed oil into our experiments,” says Prof Marx. process catalysts.
The results were clear: raw, unrefined cottonseed oil is indeed a Exploratory as the project was, it benefitted both the university
technically feasible source of kerosene/paraffin, as well as diesel and the Sustainable Cotton Cluster, and opened up new
and naphtha. possibilities for the cotton value chain in South Africa.
Commercial viability was not included in the research scope
and Prof Marx explains that production volumes are the biggest
hurdle at present. South Africa does not produce enough cotton
to justify the investment of building a cottonseed oil refinery. But
there are other options.
“Our advice to the Sustainable Cotton Cluster was to partner
with existing refineries that use crude oil to manufacture diesel
and kerosene. The cottonseed oil can be blended with the crude
oil during the refinery process. This will increase the kerosene
yield and deliver a more environmentally friendly product that
releases fewer particles into the atmosphere when it is burnt.”
This exact method was the topic of a master’s degree student’s
thesis. He conducted his research at the Natref refinery with

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