JP2003525035A - How to improve tobacco bulking - Google Patents

Abstract

  (57) [Summary] PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve an existing INCOM method and achieve an equivalently good or better numerical value with respect to a bulking property or an expanding effect. SOLUTION: The tobacco material having an initial moisture content of up to about 15% by weight is continuously or stepwise compressed with a process gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon at a pressure of 50 to 1,000 bar and then continuously or stepwise. In this case, the compression and decompression steps are performed in one autoclave or in several autoclaves while switching in a cascade manner, and the discharged tobacco material is post-treated with heat. Thereby, in a process for improving the tobacco bulking properties, such as tobacco leaves or veins and / or tobacco additives, the compaction is carried out at an operating temperature above 55 ° C., preferably at an operating temperature of 60-90 ° C., and A method for improving tobacco bulking properties wherein the initial moisture is in the range of 8 to 14% by weight.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention is based on the fact that a tobacco material initially containing up to 15% by weight of water is continuously or stepwise compressed with a process gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon at a pressure of 50 to 1,000 bar and then continuously. Alternatively, the treatment is performed while gradually reducing the pressure, and the compression or decompression process at this time is performed in one autoclave or in several autoclaves while switching to a cascade type. The present invention relates to a method for improving the bulking property of tobacco such as chopped tobacco leaves or veins and / or tobacco additives by treating.

[0002]

[Prior art]

This type of method, also known as the INCOM expansion method, has proven advantageous over pressurized treatment of tobacco with carbon dioxide, ammonia or volatile organic gases. DE 3119330 A1 describes such an expansion method in which operating temperatures of 0 to 50 ° C. are mainly used in autoclaves. This method provided the use of a tobacco material containing up to 15% by weight of water and post-treated with steam to increase bulking or expansion. The aim in this case was that if the moisture content of the tobacco was as low as 10 to 15% by weight, the tobacco material discharged when the pressure was released was further cooled to the desired degree.

Furthermore, DE 34 14 625 C2 discloses a cascade method, by means of which most processes such as cooling of the process gas before reactor filling, cooling of the autoclave, or supercooling and the use of liquefied process gas are possible. A wide variety of means will result in low operating temperatures being achieved during tobacco impregnation. The water content of tobacco is, for example, 10 to 10.
Certainly in the range of 30% by weight, it is explicitly required that the autoclave temperature and / or its cooling water temperature should not exceed 50 ° C.

This is also confirmed by DE 3935774 C2 with regard to the cascade expansion method. In this method, the process gas is circulated through a cooler in order to maintain the required low impregnation temperature of 25 or 45 ° C.

[0005]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Good values have already been achieved with the expansion method described above for increasing the bulking capacity and / or the expansion degree of tobacco, but the cooling of one or several autoclaves is required, and These methods are relatively expensive because of the additional cooling required.

The object of the present invention is to improve on the existing INCOM process, while avoiding the uneconomical cooling measures in the compression process, which were heretofore considered necessary, with equally good or better numerical values in terms of extendability or expansion effect. Is to achieve.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems]

According to the invention, therefore, a method as initially mentioned in the preamble of the claims is presented, which is characterized in that the compression is carried out at a reactor temperature above 55 ° C.

Surprisingly, it has been found that for low tobacco moisture in the range up to 15% by weight, the existing theories requiring low processing temperatures do not give optimum expansion results. On the contrary, surprisingly good figures for the expansion effect and / or the extendability could be achieved only by increasing the treatment temperature in the compression process.

Furthermore, according to this method, since it is not necessary to remove the heat of compression, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to further cool one or several autoclaves.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the following embodiments, the method according to the present invention will be described in comparison with the existing state of the art. The test results show different effects of operating temperature on the degree of expansion at different tobacco moisture. According to the existing theory, in the case of 18% by weight of tobacco moisture, the swelling effect decreases when the operating temperature is raised to 40 ° C or higher. On the other hand, the water content of cigarette is
If less than 5% by weight, high-pressure treatment at operating temperatures of 60 and 80 ° C.
There is a clear improvement. Surprisingly, the degree of expansion achievable at low tobacco moisture and high operating temperatures may be higher than the values achieved under conventional conditions.

<Embodiment> A high pressure treatment was carried out in a laboratory autoclave having a working volume of 2 liters. The required operating temperature was adjusted using a casing for liquid medium circulation. The pressure was increased from below and the pressure was decreased from above. Allowed the intended circuit diagram with several valves. The final pressure was adjusted using a compressor. The tobacco temperature in the upper tobacco filling part was measured by a thermocouple element.

Laboratory equipment for thermal aftertreatment consists of a breathable wire gauge as a conveyor belt, a baffle for forming the tobacco mat to the required width, a steam nozzle with a slit-shaped outlet, and a belt underneath. It consisted of a vapor suction device located at. Post-treatment was performed with saturated steam.

[0013]   The most important processing parameters are shown in Table 1 below.

[0014]

[Table 1]

Tobacco samples were spread on flat plastic trays and conditioned in a standard climate of 21 ° C. and 62% relative humidity. The extendability was determined using a Borgwaldt densitometer and the specific volume (
(ml / g) was converted at a nominal water content of 12% by weight and a nominal temperature of 22. From the data of the untreated comparison / basic sample and the expanded sample, the relative improvement rate of the bulking property (also described as the expansion degree) can be calculated according to the following formula: Δ% = (F _E −F _B ) * 100% / F _B (In the above formula, F _B means the weight gain of the basic sample, and F _E means the weight gain of expanded tobacco.)

[0016] The test was carried out with tobacco moisture of 8, 12 and 14% by weight, and by comparison 18% by weight.
I went there. The operating temperature was adjusted to 40, 60 and 80 ° C by thermostat control. The final pressure was 700 bar and the depressurization was performed at time intervals of approximately 0.5 minutes. All tests were based on a homogeneous mixture of Virginia tobacco and using the saturated steam aftertreatment method described above.

[0017]   The test results are shown in Table 2 below, and the results of the comparative tests are shown in Table 3 below. T in the table _A Is the tobacco temperature just before removal from the autoclave, meaning the discharge temperature,% is
It means the relative improvement rate of bulking and / or swelling.

[0018]

[Table 2]

[0019]

[Table 3]

A comparison of the above tables clearly shows that with tobaccos having a water content of less than 15% by weight, the high operating temperatures of 60 and 80 have a positive effect on the improvement in weight gain.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (81) Designated countries EP (AT, BE, CH, CY, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE, I T, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE, TR), OA (BF , BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, GW, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (GH, G M, KE, LS, MW, MZ, SD, SL, SZ, TZ , UG, ZW), EA (AM, AZ, BY, KG, KZ, MD, RU, TJ, TM), AE, AG, AL, AM, AT, AU, AZ, BA, BB, BG, BR, BY, B Z, CA, CH, CN, CR, CU, CZ, DE, DK , DM, DZ, EE, ES, FI, GB, GD, GE, GH, GM, HR, HU, ID, IL, IN, IS, J P, KE, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LC, LK, LR , LS, LT, LU, LV, MA, MD, MG, MK, MN, MW, MX, MZ, NO, NZ, PL, PT, R O, RU, SD, SE, SG, SI, SK, SL, TJ , TM, TR, TT, TZ, UA, UG, US, UZ, VN, YU, ZA, ZW (72) Inventor Pineman Thomas             Federal Republic of Germany Rosengarten             21224 BGM Gstaf Yellow             Strasse 9 (72) Inventor Jean Claus Dieter             Federal Republic of Germany Pinneberg 25421               Hunenbulk 19 F-term (reference) 4B043 BA53

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Tobacco material having an initial water content of up to about 15% by weight is treated with nitrogen and / or
Alternatively, it is continuously or stepwise compressed at a pressure of 50 to 1,000 bar with a processing gas consisting of argon, and then continuously or stepwise depressurized, and the step of compression or depressurization at this time is performed by one autoclave. In-situ or in cascaded autoclaves, and further post-treatment of the discharged tobacco material with heat to increase tobacco tobacco content such as cut tobacco leaves or veins and / or tobacco additives. A method for improving tobacco weight gain, characterized in that the compression is carried out at an operating temperature above 55 ° C. 2. The method for improving tobacco weight gain according to claim 1, wherein the compression is carried out at an operating temperature of 60 to 90 ° C. 3. The method for improving tobacco weight gain according to claim 1, wherein the initial moisture content of the tobacco material is in the range of 8 to 14% by weight.