EP4699458A1

EP4699458A1 - Bio-disintegrable and eco-friendly filter for smoking article

Info

Publication number: EP4699458A1
Application number: EP24849607.7A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Sung Hoon Ha; Young Han Jeong; Kyeng Bae Ma; Ki Jin AHN; Jin Chul Yang; Min Hee Hwang; Seung Dong SEO; Jeong Hun Lee; Jong Cheol Jeong; Sang Woo Jin; Yeong Nam Hwang
Original assignee: Kolon Industries Inc; KT&G Corp
Current assignee: Kolon Industries Inc; KT&G Corp
Priority date: 2023-08-02
Filing date: 2024-07-31
Publication date: 2026-02-25
Also published as: TW202508469A; CN121240786A; WO2025029040A1

Abstract

Provided are a smoking article filter and a smoking article including the same. The smoking article filter includes lyocell tow including lyocell fibers. wherein, after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter has a disintegrability of 80% or more, and the disintegrability is defined by the mathematical equation below. D=m1−m2m1×100(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m<sub>1</sub> represents an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter, and m<sub>2</sub> represents a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve after the period.)

Description

[Technical Field]

The present invention relates to an eco-friendly filter for a smoking article having excellent disintegrability and biodegradability under industrial composting conditions and a smoking article including the eco-friendly filter.

[Background Art]

Cellulose acetate (CA) tow is a material produced by allowing sulfuric acid and acetic acid to react with cellulose and is a material that undergoes chemical transformation. The CA tow conventionally used in the manufacture of cigarette filters has a plasticizer applied thereto to improve the hardness of the filter, and when a filter is manufactured using CA tow, the bonding strength between fibers in the tow is increased due to the applied plasticizer, and thus the hardness of the filter is improved. However, the CA filter manufactured using a plasticizer has a problem in that it is difficult to satisfy analysis pass criteria such as industrial composting conditions.
Meanwhile, lyocell tow (L-tow) is a material produced in the form of a fiber bundle by dissolving cellulose in an eco-friendly solvent named "N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO)" instead of transforming the structure of cellulose through a chemical reaction as in the CA tow. L-tow is an eco-friendly material containing cellulose as its main component, and in the case of a filter manufactured using L-tow, since a plasticizer that can increase the bonding strength between fibers in the tow is not present, there is a problem in that the lyocell filter has a low hardness. Conventionally, in order to address the low hardness problem, a synthetic binder is applied to impart hardness.
Meanwhile, when a synthetic binder is applied to L-tow, although a certain hardness is imparted, there is a problem in that disintegrability under industrial composting conditions decreases and thus biodegradability decreases in the long term. Accordingly, there is a need for a material that can have excellent disintegrability under industrial composting conditions while imparting a certain hardness to L-tow.

[Disclosure]

[Technical Problem]

One object of the present invention is to provide an eco-friendly filter for a smoking article that has an additive, which is a phenol reducing material, added to lyocell tow, thereby improving phenol reducing performance, having excellent disintegrability under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), and thus having improved biodegradability, and a smoking article including the eco-friendly filter.
However, the objects of the present invention are not limited to that mentioned above, and other unmentioned objects can be clearly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art from the description below.

[Technical Solution]

One embodiment for achieving the above object provides a smoking article filter including lyocell tow including lyocell fibers, wherein, after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter has a disintegrability of 80% or more, and the disintegrability is defined by the mathematical equation below. $D = \frac{m_{1} - m_{2}}{m_{1}} \times 100$
(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m₁ represents an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter, and m₂ represents a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve after the period.)
In some embodiments, the smoking article filter may further include an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow.
In some embodiments, the additive may include a phenol reducing material.
In some embodiments, the phenol reducing material may include one or more of an organic acid derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a polyhydric alcohol molecule derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a molecule in which a plurality of polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded, and a molecule in which three or more polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded.
In some embodiments, the phenol reducing material may include one or more of polyethylene glycol (PEG), triethyl citrate (TEC), and triacetin (TA).
In some embodiments, the disintegrability may be 85% or more.
In some embodiments, the smoking article filter may further include a filter portion wrapper configured to wrap around the lyocell tow.
In some embodiments, the filter portion wrapper may be nonporous wrapping paper having a basis weight ranging from 20 gsm to 180 gsm.
In some embodiments, the filter portion wrapper may be nonporous wrapping paper having a basis weight ranging from 70 gsm to 150 gsm.
In some embodiments, a hardness of the smoking article filter may range from 80% to 99%.
Another embodiment for achieving the above object provides a smoking article including a smoking material portion; and a smoking article filter disposed downstream of the smoking material portion, wherein the smoking article filter includes lyocell tow including lyocell fibers and a filter portion wrapper configured to surround a filter portion, and after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter has a disintegrability of 80% or more, and the disintegrability is defined by the mathematical equation below. $D = \frac{m_{1} - m_{2}}{m_{1}} \times 100$
(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m₁ represents an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter, and m₂ represents a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve after the period.)
In some embodiments, the smoking article filter may further include an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow, and the additive may include one or more of polyethylene glycol (PEG), triethyl citrate (TEC), and triacetin (TA).

[Advantageous Effects]

According to an eco-friendly filter for a smoking article and a smoking article including the same according to one embodiment, by adding an additive, which is a phenol reducing material, to lyocell tow, phenol reducing performance is improved, hardness is excellent, and simultaneously, disintegrability under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432) is excellent such that biodegradability is excellent.
It should be understood that the effects of the present invention are not limited to the above-described effects, and include all effects that can be inferred from the configuration of the invention described in the detailed description or claims of the present invention.

[Description of Drawings]

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a schematic configuration of a smoking article according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Example 1 of the present invention that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.
FIG. 3 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 1 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.
FIG. 4 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 2 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.
FIG. 5 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 3 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.
FIG. 6 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 4 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.

[Modes of the Invention]

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Advantages and features of the present disclosure and methods of achieving the same should become clear with embodiments described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the technical spirit of the present disclosure is not limited to the following embodiments and may be implemented in various different forms. The following embodiments are only provided to make the technical spirit of the present disclosure complete and completely inform those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains of the scope of the present disclosure. The technical spirit of the present disclosure is defined only by the scope of the claims.
In assigning reference numerals to components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same reference numerals are assigned to the same components wherever possible even when the components are illustrated in different drawings. Also, in describing the present disclosure, when it is determined that the detailed description of a known related configuration or function may obscure the gist of the present disclosure, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical or scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains. Terms defined in commonly used dictionaries should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Terms used herein are for describing the embodiments and are not intended to limit the present disclosure. In the specification, a singular expression includes a plural expression unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
Also, in describing components of the present disclosure, terms such as first, second, A, B, (a), and (b) may be used. Such terms are only used for distinguishing one component from another component, and the essence, order, sequence, or the like of the corresponding component is not limited by the terms. In a case in which a certain component is described as being "connected," "coupled," or "linked" to another component, it should be understood that, although the component may be directly connected or linked to the other component, still another component may also be "connected," "coupled," or "linked" between the two components.
The terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" used herein specify the presence of mentioned components, steps, operations, and/or devices but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other components, steps, operations, and/or devices.
First, some terms used herein will be clarified.
In the present specification, "smoking article" may refer to any product that can be smoked or any product that can provide a smoking experience, regardless of whether the product is based on tobacco, tobacco derivatives, expanded tobacco, reconstituted tobacco, or tobacco substitutes. For example, smoking articles may include products that can be smoked, such as cigarettes, cigars, and cigarillos.
In the present specification, "smoking material" may refer to any type of material that may be used in a smoking article.
In the present specification, "upstream" or "upstream direction" may refer to a direction moving away from an oral region of a smoker, and "downstream" or "downstream direction" may refer to a direction approaching the oral region of the smoker.
In the present specification, "longitudinal direction" may refer to a direction corresponding to a longitudinal axis of a smoking article.
Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a schematic configuration of a smoking article according to one embodiment of the present invention.
Throughout the specification, "smoking article" may refer to anything capable of generating an aerosol, such as tobacco (cigarettes) and cigars. The smoking article may include an aerosol-generating material or an aerosol-forming substrate. Also, the smoking article may include a solid material based on tobacco raw materials, such as reconstituted tobacco leaves, shredded tobacco, and reconstituted tobacco. A smoking material may include volatile compounds.
Also, throughout the specification, "upstream" or "upstream direction" refers to a direction moving away from an oral region of a user smoking a smoking article 100, and "downstream" or "downstream direction" refers to a direction approaching the oral region of the user smoking the smoking article 100. For example, in the smoking article 100 illustrated in FIG. 1, a smoking material portion 10 is disposed upstream or in an upstream direction of a filter portion 20 included in a smoking article filter (or an eco-friendly smoking article filter, hereinafter referred to as "smoking article filter").
Further, in the specification, a case where the smoking article 100 is a combustion-type cigarette is described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the smoking article 100 may also be a heating-type cigarette or the like that is used together with an aerosol generation device (not illustrated) such as an electronic cigarette device.
Referring to FIG. 1, the smoking article 100 includes the smoking material portion 10, the filter portion 20, a smoking material portion wrapper 30a, a filter portion wrapper (or filter wrapping paper) 30b, and tipping paper 40.
The smoking article filter (or eco-friendly smoking article filter) may include the filter portion 20 and the filter portion wrapper 30b surrounding the filter portion 20. In the smoking article 100, the smoking material portion 10 is disposed upstream of the filter portion 20.
The smoking material portion 10 may be filled with a smoking material such as raw tobacco leaves, reconstituted tobacco leaves, or a mixture of tobacco leaves and reconstituted tobacco leaves. A processed smoking material may be filled in the smoking material portion 10 in the form of a sheet or shredded tobacco. The smoking material portion 10 may have the form of a longitudinally extending rod whose length, circumference, and diameter are not particularly limited, but the length, circumference, and diameter may be adjusted to sizes generally used in the art in consideration of the amount of smoking material filled therein, user preferences, or the like.
The smoking material portion 10 may include at least one aerosol-generating material among glycerin, propylene glycol, ethylene glycol, dipropylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, tetraethylene glycol, and oleyl alcohol. The smoking material portion 10 may contain other additives such as a flavoring agent, a wetting agent, and/or an acetate compound. The aerosol-generating material and the additive may be contained in the smoking material. The smoking material portion 10 may be wrapped with the smoking material portion wrapper 30a.
The smoking article filter may be disposed downstream of the smoking material portion 10. The filter portion 20 of the smoking article filter is disposed downstream of the smoking material portion 10 and serves as a filter through which an aerosol material generated in the smoking material portion 10 passes right before being inhaled by the user.
The filter portion 20 according to one embodiment of the present invention may include lyocell tow including a plurality of lyocell fibers and an additive including a phenol reducing material and dispersed in the lyocell tow. The smoking article filter including the lyocell tow may replace all or part of the filter portion 20 of existing smoking articles, and when the smoking article filter replaces part of the filter portion 20, a filter material that is used conventionally may be used together. For example, a cellulose acetate filter, a hollow tube filter, or the like may be used as the conventional filter material.
The filter portion 20 is illustrated as a mono filter formed of a single filter in FIG. 1, but the present invention is not limited thereto. For example, the filter portion 20 may be provided as a dual filter, a triple filter, or the like, which includes two or more filters, in order to increase filter efficiency.
In some embodiments, when the filter portion 20 is provided as a dual filter, a triple filter, or the like, the filter (hereinafter, "lyocell filter") of the present invention that includes lyocell tow including lyocell fibers and an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow and including a phenol reducing material may be applied as any one filter of the plurality of filters, and a cellulose acetate filter and/or a paper filter may be applied as the other or another filter of the plurality of filters.
The filter portion wrapper 30b may surround the filter portion 20 and wrap around the filter portion 20. The filter portion wrapper 30b is filter wrapping paper and may correspond to porous paper, nonporous paper, or the like that surrounds the lyocell tow in which the additive is dispersed and can maintain a cylindrical filter shape. Also, the filter portion wrapper 30b may be manufactured using flax, wood pulp, and the like and may require maintaining combustibility and a tobacco taste during combustion.
Although the present invention is not limited thereto, as will be described below, nonporous hard wrapping paper may be applied to the filter portion wrapper 30b to supplement the hardness of the filter portion 20 including the lyocell tow in which the additive including the phenol reducing material is dispersed. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and porous general wrapping paper may also be applied to the filter portion wrapper 30b. Even when nonporous hard wrapping paper is applied to the filter portion wrapper 30b to provide an excellent hardness of the smoking article filter according to the present invention, the smoking article filter may have excellent biodegradability without a decrease in the disintegrability thereof.
The smoking material portion 10 wrapped with the smoking material portion wrapper 30a and the filter portion 20 wrapped with the filter portion wrapper 30b may be wrapped together with the tipping paper 40. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the tipping paper 40 may be wrapped around at least a portion (for example, a partial downstream region) of the smoking material portion wrapper 30a and an outer periphery of the filter portion wrapper 30b. In other words, at least a portion of the smoking material portion 10 and the filter portion 20 may be further wrapped with the tipping paper 40 and physically combined.
Hereinafter, a smoking article filter according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.
The present invention relates to a smoking article filter included in the smoking article 100, and the smoking article filter according to one embodiment of the present invention includes lyocell tow including a plurality of lyocell fibers, an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow, and the filter portion wrapper 30b surrounding the lyocell tow, wherein, after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter may have a disintegrability of 80% or more.
The lyocell fibers are eco-friendly fibers made of cellulose extracted from wood pulp. The lyocell tow refers to a bundle formed by cross-linking adjacent lyocell fibers.
In some embodiments, the lyocell fibers may have a shaped cross-section. The shaped cross-section is defined as a cross-section having a shape including a plurality of protrusions instead of having a circular shape. For example, a cross-section having a shape in which a plurality of protrusions extend from the center may be referred to as "shaped cross-section."
In some embodiments, the lyocell fibers may have a Y-shaped cross-section with three protrusions branching from the center, a cross-shaped cross-section with four protrusions, a star-shaped cross-section with five protrusions, or an O-shaped cross-section, but the present invention is not limited thereto.
In some embodiments, after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter may have a disintegrability of 80% or more, 81% or more, 82% or more, 83% or more, or 84% or more, preferably, 85% or more.
As will be described below, for the disintegrability, an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter before the smoking article filter is input to an analysis room (hereinafter, referred to as "initial filter weight") is measured, a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve, which is filtered by the standard sieve, after the experimental period (three months) (hereinafter, referred to as "weight of the residue at the upper end of the standard sieve after the period") is measured, and the disintegrability under the industrial composting conditions (EN 13432) may be measured using an equation in which the difference between the initial filter weight and the weight of the residue at the upper end of the standard sieve after the period is divided by the initial filter weight. The detailed description thereof will be given below.
In some embodiments, the additive may include a phenol reducing material. In one embodiment, the phenol reducing material may correspond to a material that can specifically reduce phenols generated during smoking.
In some embodiments, the phenol reducing material may be a material including one or more of an organic acid derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a polyhydric alcohol molecule derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a molecule in which a plurality of polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded, and a molecule in which three or more polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded. Preferably, the phenol reducing material may include one or more of polyethylene glycol (hereinafter, referred to as "PEG"), triethyl citrate (hereinafter, referred to as "TEC"), and triacetin (hereinafter, referred to as "TA").
In some embodiments, the phenol reducing material may include PEG, include TEC, or include both PEG and TEC. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and a phenol functional material additionally added to at least one of PEG, TEC, and TA is not limited as long as the phenol functional material is a material that can reduce phenols generated during smoking.
In some embodiments, the additive including the phenol reducing material may be uniformly dispersed in the lyocell tow and may be distributed throughout the entire area of the lyocell tow constituting the filter portion 20.
Meanwhile, at least one of PEG, TEC, and TA, which are examples of the phenol reducing material according to one embodiment, may act as a plasticizer for cellulose acetate fibers, but not act as a plasticizer for lyocell fibers. Accordingly, when at least one of PEG, TEC, and TA is included as a phenol reducing material, even though the phenol reducing material is applied on the lyocell fibers, the lyocell fibers may not be plasticized by the phenol reducing material.
The smoking article filter to which lyocell tow is applied according to the present invention includes an additive including one or more of PEG, TEC, and TA dispersed in the lyocell tow as a phenol reducing material and thus may have a greater effect of reducing phenols generated during smoking, compared to a smoking article filter to which the phenol reducing material is not added.
Further, although the phenol reducing material including at least one of PEG, TEC, and TA is dispersed in the lyocell tow, the phenol reducing material that functions as a plasticizer for cellulose acetate fibers does not function as a plasticizer for lyocell fibers, so the smoking article filter according to the present invention may have excellent biodegradability without disintegrability being lowered.
The filter portion wrapper 30b may be disposed to surround the filter portion 20. The filter portion wrapper 30b may have a basis weight having a predetermined numerical value or more and may be configured (manufactured) using nonporous hard wrapping paper.
Meanwhile, since the filter portion wrapper 30b is configured using hard wrapping paper having a basis weight of a predetermined numerical value or more, the filter portion wrapper 30b may not only function as a wrapping material that surrounds the filter portion 20 including the lyocell tow, but also function to impart a certain level of hardness or more to the smoking article filter according to the present invention.
Specifically, when the filter portion 20 is made of lyocell tow in which one or more of PEG, TEC, and TA are dispersed as a phenol reducing material, since plasticization of lyocell fibers by the phenol reducing material does not occur, the hardness of the lyocell tow may be decreased as compared to cellulose acetate tow. Accordingly, the hardness of the smoking article filter may be supplemented by applying hard wrapping paper having a basis weight of a predetermined numerical value or more as the filter portion wrapper 30b surrounding the filter portion 20. Accordingly, it is possible to provide a smoking article filter having excellent hardness while preventing a problem of a decrease in disintegrability that may occur when a synthetic polymer binder is applied on the lyocell tow to impart hardness to the lyocell filter by cohesion, binding, and adhesion between lyocell fiber bundles.
In some embodiments, the filter portion wrapper 30b may include wrapping paper having a basis weight ranging from 20 gsm to 180 gsm, from 25 gsm to 175 gsm, from 35 gsm to 170 gsm, from 40 gsm to 160 gsm, from 50 gsm to 158 gsm, from 60 gsm to 155 gsm, from 70 gsm to 150 gsm, or from 75 gsm to 150 gsm. As the filter portion wrapper 30b is configured using wrapping paper having a high basis weight, the filter portion wrapper 30b may supplement the hardness of the filter portion 20 including the lyocell tow in which the phenol reducing material is dispersed, and thus the hardness of the smoking article filter may be a certain level or more, and thus the problem in that the hardness of the smoking article filter is decreased may be addressed. Further, as will be described below, although the filter portion wrapper 30b is configured using wrapping paper having a high basis weight, the phenol reducing material does not act as a plasticizer for the lyocell tow, so the smoking article filter may have an excellent disintegrability of 80% or more, preferably, 85% or more, under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432.
In some embodiments, the smoking article filter including the filter portion 20 and the filter portion wrapper 30b surrounding the filter portion according to the present invention may have a hardness ranging from 80% to 99%, from 83% to 98.5%, from 85% to 98%, or from 88% to 97.5%. The hardness of the smoking article filter is a numerical value of the degree to which a diameter of the smoking article filter is maintained when the smoking article filter is pressed with a force of a certain level in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the smoking article filter and may be a percentage value of a ratio of a diameter of the smoking article filter after the force is applied to a diameter of the smoking article filter before the force is applied.
Hereinafter, the configurations of the present invention and the advantageous effects according thereto will be described in more detail using examples and comparative examples. However, the examples are merely for describing the present invention in more detail, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to these examples.
FIG. 2 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Example 1 of the present invention that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively. FIG. 3 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 1 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, and 3D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively. FIG. 4 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 2 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 4A, 4B, 4C, and 4D are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively. FIG. 5 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 3 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively. FIG. 6 is a set of pictures of a state of a smoking article filter manufactured according to Comparative Example 4 that are taken over time under industrial composting conditions (EN 13432), wherein FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C are pictures of the smoking article filter that are taken after 0 weeks, 4 weeks, and 12 weeks, respectively.

Example 1 (L-filter TEC+PEG, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)

15.6 mg of a mixed solution of TEC and PEG in which 5.1 mg of TEC and 10.5 mg of PEG were mixed per length (mm) of lyocell tow was sprayed and added to the lyocell tow, and then the lyocell tow having the mixed solution of TEC and PEG dispersed therein was surrounded by nonporous hard wrapping paper having a basis weight of 75 gsm to manufacture a smoking article filter having a length of 108 mm, a circumference of 24.2 mm, and a resistance to draw of 300 mmWG to 450 mmWG.

Example 2 (L-filter TEC, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that 15.6 mg of TEC per length (mm) of lyocell tow, instead of the mixed solution of TEC and PEG, was sprayed and added to the lyocell tow.

Example 3 (L-filter PEG, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that 15.6 mg of PEG per length (mm) of lyocell tow, instead of the mixed solution of TEC and PEG, was sprayed and added to the lyocell tow.

Comparative Example 1 (L-filter Blank, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that an additive including a phenol reducing material was not added to lyocell tow.

Comparative Example 2 (L-filter Synthetic polymer binder, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that, instead of an additive including a phenol reducing material, a binder solution having a 15% concentration, which is a polyester-based synthetic polymer binder, was added to lyocell tow at 15 wt% with respect to the weight of lyocell tow.

Experimental Example 1: Evaluation of phenol reducing performance

Smoking articles were manufactured using the smoking article filters of Examples 1 to 3 and Comparative Example 1, smoke components emitted during smoking using the cigarette smoking machine HAUNI LX20 manual (linear type) as a smoking device under HC conditions (puff volume: 55 ml / puff frequency: 30 s / puff duration: 2 s / vent blocking) as smoking conditions were collected using a Cambridge filter pad (CFP), and in order to extract substances from the smoke components collected on the CFP, 30 mL of 1% acetic acid was added and then stirred, the substances were filtered using a 0.45 µm PVDF syringe filter, phenols and phenol smoke components in the smoke passing through each smoking article filter were measured and analyzed using an Alliance HPLC-FLD analysis device of Waters Corporation, and results thereof are shown in Table 1 below.

[Table 1]

	Components in smoke
	Phenol (ug/cig)	Total phenols (ug/cig)
Comparative Example 1 (L-filter Blank, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	38.9	249.4
Example 1 (L-filter TEC+PEG, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	18.3	203.2
Example 2 (L-filter TEC, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	21.4	202.4
Example 3 (L-filter PEG, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	18.6	204.5

As shown in Table 1 above, the amount of delivered phenol decreased and the total amount of delivered phenols also decreased in the smoking article filters of Examples 1 to 3 manufactured using the lyocell tow in which a phenol reducing material was dispersed, compared to the smoking article filter of Comparative Example 1 in which a phenol reducing material was not dispersed in the lyocell tow. Also, it can be confirmed that the total amount of delivered phenolic materials decreased similarly in Examples 1 to 3, and compared to Example 2 in which TEC was added alone as a phenol reducing material, the phenol reducing performance was better in Example 1 in which the mixed solution of TEC and PEG was added and Example 3 in which PEG was added alone.
Therefore, an advantage of improving the phenol reducing performance may be expected when a smoking article filter is manufactured by dispersing an additive including one or more of TEC and PEG in lyocell tow.

Experimental Example 2: Disintegrability of lyocell filter under industrial composting conditions

In an analysis room configured using a 2 L-reactor stored in a 300 L-chamber, an experiment was conducted using the smoking article filters of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 for 3 months (12 weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C and a humidity of 50% according to EN 13432.
In order to check the disintegrability of the smoking article filters of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 over time, pictures of the states of the smoking article filters of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 were taken over time (0 weeks, 4 weeks, 8 weeks, 12 weeks) and are shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, and the disintegrability of the smoking article filters of Example 1 and Comparative Examples 1 and 2 was measured after 12 weeks (3 months) and is shown in Table 2.
The disintegrability under the industrial composting conditions may be measured using the principle that when the smoking article filters stored in the analysis room disintegrate over time and are filtered using a standard sieve made of a 2 mm×2 mm mesh, if disintegrability is excellent, the smoking article filter disintegrates into pieces having a size less than 2 mm and is not filtered using the standard sieve. Unless otherwise stated in the present specification, the standard sieve may refer to a sieve made of a 2 mm×2 mm mesh. Further, satisfying the conditions under EN 13432, which are industrial composting conditions, may refer to a case in which biodegradability of 90% or more is satisfied within a maximum of 12 weeks and the amount of residue having a size of 2 mm or more that is filtered by the standard sieve is 10% at most or less.
Specifically, an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter before the smoking article filter was input to the analysis room (hereinafter, referred to as "initial filter weight") was measured, a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve, which was filtered by the standard sieve, after the experiment period (3 months) (hereinafter, referred to as "weight of the residue at the upper end of the standard sieve after the period") was measured, and the disintegrability under the industrial composting conditions (EN 13432) was measured using Mathematical Equation 1 below in which a difference between the initial filter weight and the weight of the residue at the upper end of the standard sieve after the period is divided by the initial filter weight. $D = \frac{m_{1} - m_{2}}{m_{1}} \times 100$

(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m₁ represents the initial filter weight (g), and m₂ represents the weight (g) of the residue at the upper end of the standard sieve after the period.)

[Table 2]

	Disintegrability (%)
Example 1 (L-filter TEC+PEG, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	85
Comparative Example 1 (L-filter Blank, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	91
Comparative Example 2 (L-filter synthetic polymer binder, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	70

As shown in Table 2 above, as the disintegrability of the smoking article filter of Example 1 in which an additive including a phenol reducing material was applied to the lyocell tow was 85%, it can be confirmed that the disintegrability under the industrial composting conditions significantly increased compared to the 70% disintegrability of the smoking article filter of Comparative Example 2 in which a synthetic polymer binder was applied to the lyocell tow. Further, although the disintegrability decreased in Example 1 compared to Comparative Example 1 in which an additive for improving hardness or reducing phenols was not applied to the lyocell tow, it can be confirmed that the reduction rate was not high.
Also, referring to FIGS. 2 to 4, it can be confirmed that, while the filters of Example 1 and Comparative Example 1 after 12 weeks (3 months) had a powdery form instead of a cylindrical form due to being disintegrated, the filter of Comparative Example 2 after 12 weeks (3 months) maintained an initial shape of the filter and did not have a powdery form due to a low disintegration rate.
From such results, it can be confirmed that, when an additive including a phenol reducing material is applied to lyocell tow, there is not only an advantage in that phenol reducing performance may also be improved, but also an effect of preventing a problem of a decrease in disintegrability compared to when a polymer binder is applied.

Comparative Example 3 (L-filter synthetic polymer binder, 21 gsm general wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Comparative Example 2 except that, instead of nonporous hard wrapping paper having a basis weight of 75 gsm, porous general wrapping paper having a basis weight of 21 gsm was used as wrapping paper surrounding the lyocell tow.

Comparative Example 4 (CA-filter synthetic polymer binder, 21 gsm general wrapping paper)

A smoking article filter was manufactured in the same manner as in Comparative Example 3 except that cellulose acetate tow was applied instead of lyocell tow, and TEC was applied as a plasticizer to the cellulose acetate tow at 7 wt% with respect to the weight of the filter.

Experimental Example 3: Comparison of disintegrability of lyocell filter and cellulose acetate filter under industrial composting conditions

In the same manner as in Experimental Example 2, the smoking article filters of Comparative Examples 3 and 4 were input to the analysis room, and an experiment was conducted for 3 months (12 weeks) under the industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C and a humidity of 50% according to EN 13432. Pictures of the states of the smoking article filters were taken over time (0 weeks, 4 weeks, 12 weeks) and are shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, and the disintegrability of the smoking article filter of each comparative example was measured after 12 weeks (3 months) and is shown in Table 3.

[Table 3]

	Disintegrability (%)
Comparative Example 3 (L-filter synthetic polymer binder, 21 gsm general wrapping paper)	70
Comparative Example 4 (CA-filter synthetic polymer binder, 21 gsm general wrapping paper)	30

As shown in Table 3 above, it can be confirmed that the disintegrability of the smoking article filter significantly increased in the lyocell filter of Comparative Example 3 compared to the cellulose acetate filter of Comparative Example 4. Therefore, the biodegradability of the smoking article filter may also be expected to increase according to a significant increase in the disintegrability of the smoking article filter.
Also, referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, it can be confirmed that, as compared to the lyocell filter of Comparative Example 3 after 12 weeks (3 months), the cellulose acetate filter of Comparative Example 4 after 12 weeks (3 months) generally maintained an initial shape of the filter due to slow disintegration.
Therefore, since the lyocell filter of Comparative Example 3 to which a synthetic polymer binder was added and general wrapping paper was applied has significantly higher disintegrability compared to the cellulose acetate filter of Comparative Example 4 to which a synthetic polymer binder was added and general wrapping paper was applied, the smoking article filter of Example 1, which has significantly higher disintegrability than the lyocell filter of Comparative Example 2 to which a synthetic polymer binder was added and hard wrapping paper was applied, may be expected to have higher disintegrability compared to Comparative Example 4.

Experimental Example 4: Comparison of disintegrability under industrial composting conditions according to application of filter wrapping paper

A comparison of the previously measured disintegrability of Comparative Example 2 and Comparative Example 3 under the industrial composting conditions (EN 13432) is shown in Table 4 below.

[Table 4]

	Disintegrability (%)
Comparative Example 2 (L-filter synthetic polymer binder, 75 gsm hard wrapping paper)	70
Comparative Example 3 (L-filter synthetic polymer binder, 21 gsm general wrapping paper)	70

As shown in Table 4 above, it can be confirmed that the disintegrability of the lyocell filters of Comparative Examples 2 and 3 to which a synthetic polymer binder was added was the same regardless of the basis weight of the filter wrapping paper. That is, it is expected that, even when hard wrapping paper is applied to filter wrapping paper surrounding lyocell tow to supplement the hardness of the lyocell filter, a decrease in the disintegrability of the smoking article filter due to the hard wrapping paper may not occur.
Although embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, those of ordinary skill in the art to which the present disclosure pertains should understand that the present disclosure may be embodied in other specific forms without changing the technical spirit or essential features thereof. Therefore, the embodiments described above should be understood as being illustrative, instead of limiting, in all aspects. The scope of protection of the present disclosure should be interpreted by the claims below, and all technical ideas within the scope equivalent to the claims should be interpreted as falling within the scope of rights of the technical spirit defined by the present disclosure.

Claims

A smoking article filter comprising:
lyocell tow including lyocell fibers,

wherein, after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter has a disintegrability of 80% or more, and the disintegrability is defined by Mathematical Equation 1 below. $D = \frac{m_{1} - m_{2}}{m_{1}} \times 100$

(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m₁ represents an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter, and m₂ represents a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve after the period.)
The smoking article filter of claim 1, further comprising an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow.
The smoking article filter of claim 2, wherein the additive includes a phenol reducing material.
The smoking article filter of claim 3, wherein the phenol reducing material includes one or more of an organic acid derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a polyhydric alcohol molecule derivative containing a plurality of ester groups, a molecule in which a plurality of polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded, and a molecule in which three or more polyhydric alcohols are sequentially bonded.
The smoking article filter of claim 3, wherein the phenol reducing material includes one or more of polyethylene glycol (PEG), triethyl citrate (TEC), and triacetin (TA).
The smoking article filter of claim 1, wherein the disintegrability is 85% or more.
The smoking article filter of claim 1, further comprising a filter portion wrapper configured to wrap around the lyocell tow.
The smoking article filter of claim 7, wherein the filter portion wrapper is nonporous wrapping paper having a basis weight ranging from 20 gsm to 180 gsm.
The smoking article filter of claim 7, wherein the filter portion wrapper is nonporous wrapping paper having a basis weight ranging from 70 gsm to 150 gsm.
The smoking article filter of claim 9, wherein a hardness of the smoking article filter ranges from 80% to 99%.
A smoking article comprising:
a smoking material portion; and

a smoking article filter disposed downstream of the smoking material portion,

wherein the smoking article filter includes lyocell tow including lyocell fibers and a filter portion wrapper configured to surround a filter portion,

after three months (twelve weeks) under industrial composting conditions including a temperature of 58 °C±2 °C and a humidity of 50%±2% according to EN 13432, the smoking article filter has a disintegrability of 80% or more, and

the disintegrability is defined by Mathematical Equation 2 below. $D = \frac{m_{1} - m_{2}}{m_{1}} \times 100$

(Here, D represents disintegrability (%), m₁ represents an initial weight (g) of the smoking article filter, and m₂ represents a weight (g) of a residue at an upper end of a standard sieve after the period.)
The smoking article of claim 11, wherein:
the smoking article filter further includes an additive dispersed in the lyocell tow; and

the additive includes one or more of polyethylene glycol (PEG), triethyl citrate (TEC), and triacetin (TA).