SIC 2074 Cottonseed Oil Mills

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 2074

This category covers establishments primarily engaged in manufacturing cottonseed oil, cake, meal, and linters, or in processing purchased cottonseed oil into forms other than edible cooking oils. Businesses primarily involved in refining cottonseed oil into edible cooking oils are covered in SIC 2079: Shortening, Table Oils, Margarine, and Other Edible Fats and Oils, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS CODE(S)

311223

Other Oilseed Processing

311225

Fats and Oils Refining and Blending

The first successful cottonseed oil mill began production in Natchez, Mississippi, in 1833. Up to that point, cottonseed left over from planting had been regarded as waste and a health hazard. The cottonseed industry grew swiftly following the Civil War.

Total U.S. cottonseed production totaled nearly 7.5 million tons in 2001 and, after declining in 2002 and 2003, surpassed 8.0 million tons in both 2004 and 2005. The value of production for cottonseed oil, which had reached more than $600 million in 2002, surpassed $800 million in 2004 and in 2005.

The milling of raw cottonseed yields three products: hulls, linters, and kernels. The hull is typically used as livestock feed, the linters are used for the manufacturing of various products, and the kernels are crushed for oil and meal production. Cottonseed meal typically represents 60 to 80 percent of total crushed production. Cottonseed meal is used principally as a high-protein feed supplement for cattle, swine, and poultry, and also is used as a fertilizer. Cottonseed oil is used in the production of salad dressings, margarine, and in the manufacture of lubricants, paint, and soap. In 2004 some 915 million pounds of cottonseed was crushed for oil and another 1.3 billion pounds was crushed for cake and meal.

Before the crushing of cottonseeds, and after longer fibers processed in the manufacture of fabrics are removed, the linters (shorter cotton fibers) are removed by a range of methods suited to their various uses. These uses include the production of sterile absorbent cotton, felt, and padding; the manufacture of paper, film, explosives, plastics, and rayon; and sources of essentially pure cellulose for the chemical industry.

Any part of cottonseed intended for consumption by humans or by nonruminant (not hooved) animals must be processed in such a way as to extract the gossypol, a pigment toxic to all nonruminants. Because this pigment is located in the tiny...