From Life Cycle Inventory for Cotton page 10.
Cottonseed, a valuable byproduct of fiber production is used in numerous food and industrial applications. For every kilogram of fiber produced, 1.5 kilograms of cottonseed are also produced (USDA, 2008a). In terms of land use it is difficult to properly value the benefits of this important byproduct because of the diversity of cottonseed uses and potential metrics used to assess their contribution (mass, biofuel potential, farm gate value, processed oil value, meal feed value, etc.). However, as illustrated in subsequent sections of this report, capturing the value of cottonseed is more straightforward when cotton production’s energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are evaluated.
<h3>Energy Use
Energy use estimates for U.S. cotton production and gross energy content of the seed associated with the fiber
There is no doubt that energy resources will be limited in the future, and optimizing cotton’s energy use will continue to be an important priority. The blue bar of Figure 6 represents the average amount of energy required to produce cotton from planting through the ginning process as reported in four different studies. The green bar of Figure 6 represents the gross energy content associated with the cottonseed produced from the lint. Note that even with 60% energy conversion efficiency, the energy in the seed equals the amount of energy needed to produce the crop.
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