What are the emissions from delinting cottonseed?

Delinting strips short fibres from cottonseed, by machine or with acid. Machine delinting uses electricity at 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh. Acid delinting adds the bought acid, a Scope 3 material, plus heat for drying the seed. Divide by tonnes of seed processed.

Count

• Electricity for delinting machines and dryers.
• Fuel for drying, if fired.
• Sulphuric acid bought, for acid delinting.

Linters

The short fibres removed are sold for cellulose and paper. Treat them as a co-product and allocate if a buyer asks.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads the plant's electricity bills (CEA grid factor 0.710 kg CO2 per kWh, CO2 Baseline Database version 21.0) and fuel invoices (IPCC 2006 defaults) into a fingerprinted Scope 1 and 2 record, the plant-level input to a per-unit figure. Bought-in materials go to the supplier evidence trail; product reports are self-declared drafts.

• Cotton ginning per bale
• Seed processing plant

Sources: GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, GHG Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Standard

Last reviewed 2026-10-22.