On average, about 13 million acres of cotton are harvested annually in the U.S., mostly in the Southern part of the country. After harvest, the cotton is taken to a ginning facility where the cotton fiber is separated from the seed.
In the process of harvesting the cotton, materials such as leaves, burs, stems, and sticks are also collected. These materials are removed in the ginning process and are called cotton gin trash. This material, along with the cotton seed hulls, is collected at the ginning facility and could potentially be used for bioenergy. The estimated annual quantities of cotton gin trash are about 0.5 million dry tons.