KR20020075430A - Method for improving the filling ability of tobacco - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention treats tobacco material having up to 15% by weight of initial moisture with a process gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon under a pressure of 50 to 1000 bar with continuous or stepwise pressurization followed by continuous or stepwise depressurization. Or the depressurization step is carried out in a cascade of tobacco, such as cut tobacco leaves or stems and / or tobacco additives, which is carried out in a cascade or in a single pressure vessel, followed by a thermal workup of the discharged tobacco material. It relates to a method for improving fillability. The present invention is characterized in that the pressurization is carried out at an operating temperature of at least 55 ° C., preferably 60 to 90 ° C. and the final moisture content of the tobacco is in the range of 8 to 14% by weight.

Description

METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE FILLING ABILITY OF TOBACCO}

This kind of method, known as the INCOM expansion method, has proven to be advantageous compared to pressure treatment of tobacco with carbon dioxide, ammonia or volatile organic gases. Accordingly, DE 31 19 330 A1 describes an expansion method having an operating temperature of 0 to 50 ° C. in a pressure vessel, where the use of tobacco materials having up to 15% by weight of moisture to increase fillability or degree of expansion. Post-treatment with and steam is provided. In this case, the goal was that lower tobacco moisture of 10-15% by weight would result in the desired greater cooling of the tobacco material discharged when the tension was released.

Moreover, DE 34 14 625 C2 describes a cascade method, which is the most widely varied, such as cooling the process gas, cooling the pressure vessel, or using insufficiently cooled liquefied process gas prior to loading the reactor. By means of this, a low operating temperature must be carried out during the injection of the tobacco. Although it is true that the moisture of tobacco may be in any range, for example in the range of 10 to 30% by weight, it is clearly required that the temperature of the pressure vessel and / or the temperature of its cooling water should not exceed 50 ° C.

This is also described in DE 39 35 774 C2 with respect to the cascade-type expansion method, in which a circulation of process gas through a cooler is provided to maintain the required low injection temperature of 25 ° C or 45 ° C. Is confirmed accordingly.

Although good values have already been achieved by the expansion methods described above for increasing the filling and / or expansion of tobacco, they are relatively expensive because of the necessary cooling of the pressure vessel and the additional cooling of the process gas.

The present invention relates to a cigarette having a process gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon initially at a maximum of 15% by weight of moisture under a pressure of 50 to 1000 bar with continuous or stepwise compression followed by continuous or stepwise decompression. A method for improving the fillability of tobacco, such as tobacco leaves or stems and / or tobacco additives, cut by treating the material, wherein the pressurizing or depressurizing step comprises the thermal post-treatment of the discharged tobacco material ( Thermal after-treatment occurs in cascade-type switching in several pressure vessels or in one autoclave.

It is an object of the present invention to improve the existing INCOM method to have equally good or better values for fillability or expansion effect in order to avoid uneconomical cooling means during pressurization which has been considered to be necessary until now.

Thus, according to the invention, a method of the initially mentioned form of the preamble of the claim is proposed, which method is characterized in that the pressurization is carried out at a reactor temperature of 55 ° C. or higher.

Surprisingly, for low tobacco moisture in the range of up to 15% by weight, it has been found that existing theories requiring low processing temperatures do not lead to optimal expansion results. Conversely, it is possible to obtain surprisingly good values for the expansion effect and / or fillability just by increasing the treatment temperature during pressurization.

Moreover, this method has the advantage that the pressurized heat does not have to be removed, and therefore no additional cooling of the pressure vessel (s) is required.

In the following examples, the method according to the invention is described in comparison with the prior art. The test results show a different effect of operating temperature on different cigarette moisture expansions. According to the conventional theory, raising the operating temperature above 40 ° C. for 18% by weight of tobacco moisture causes deterioration of the expansion effect. On the other hand, if high pressure treatment is carried out at an operating temperature of 60 ° C. to 80 ° C. for tobacco moisture of 15% by weight or less, a clear improvement is seen. Surprisingly, achievable degrees of expansion with low tobacco moisture and higher operating temperatures are even higher than those achieved under conventional conditions even in some cases.

High pressure treatment was carried out in a laboratory pressure vessel with a working capacity of 2 liters. A casing for circulation of the liquid medium was used to adjust the desired operating temperature. An increase in pressure was performed from below and a drop in pressure was performed up. Some figures made the intended schematic possible. Compressors were used to adjust the final pressure. The thermoelectric element measured the tobacco temperature at the top of the tobacco fill.

Laboratory devices for thermal post-treatment include permeable wire gauze acting as a conveyor belt, baffles for the formation of tobacco mats in the desired width, steam nozzles with slit-shaped outlets and steam suction devices located underneath the belts. It consisted of Post-treatment was carried out using saturated steam.

The most important treatment parameters are shown in Table 1 below.

High pressure treatment Thermal post-treatment Gas supply From below Steam capacity About 10kg / h Gas exhaust Upward Slit nozzle About 8mm Tobacco amount 300 g Slit width 160 mm Tobacco carrier PVC Pipe / Perforated Floor transit 5 cm / s

Tobacco samples were spread out on a flat plastic tray and conditioned to a reference temperature of 21 ° C. and a relative humidity of 62%. Fillability was measured using a Borgwaldt density meter and specific volume (ml / g) converted for a nominal temperature of 12% by weight and 22 ° C. From the data between the untreated comparison / foundation sample and the expanded sample, the relative improvement of fillability, described as the degree of expansion, can be calculated by the following formula, where F _B means the fillability of the base sample, and F _E is Means the filling of inflated tobacco:

Δ% = (F _E -F _B ) * 100% / F _B

The test was performed with tobacco moisture of 8, 12 and 14 and 18% by weight as a comparison. The operating temperature was controlled by temperature control to 40, 60 and 80 ° C. The final pressure reached 700 bar and the pressure drop was carried out at time intervals of approximately 30 seconds. All tests were based on a homogeneous mixture of Virginia tobacco and aftertreatment using saturated steam as described above.

The test results are shown in the following <Table 2>, and the comparative test results are shown in <Table 2a>. In the table, T _A is the discharge temperature, the cigarette temperature just before it is removed from the pressure vessel, and Δ% means the relative improvement in fillability and / or degree of expansion.

Working temperature ℃ Tobacco moisture 8% by weight 12% by weight of tobacco 14% by weight of tobacco T _A ℃ Δ% T _A ℃ Δ% T _A ℃ Δ% 40 -61 59 -53 70 -48 76 60 -48 70 -25 79 -18 83 80 -15 78 -3 81 0 73

Working temperature 18% by weight of tobacco moisture T _A ℃ Δ% 40 -41 80 60 -12 76 80 One 54

The comparison of the table above shows that if tobacco with moisture of 15% by weight or less is used, higher operating temperatures of 60 ° C. and 80 ° C. have a positive effect on improving fillability.

According to the invention, it is possible to obtain surprisingly good values for the expansion effect and / or fillability just by increasing the treatment temperature during pressurization. Moreover, this method has the advantage that the heat of pressurization does not have to be removed and therefore no additional cooling of the pressure vessel (s) is required.

Claims (3)

Pressurization is carried out at operating temperatures of 55 ° C. or higher, characterized in that up to about 15% by weight of a process gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon under pressure of 50 to 1000 bar with continuous or stepwise pressurization followed by continuous or stepwise pressure reduction. Tobacco material with initial moisture is treated, wherein the pressurized or depressurized step is carried out in a stepwise conversion or in one pressure vessel, followed by a thermal post-treatment of the discharged tobacco material, in a single tobacco vessel. Or a method of improving the fillability of tobacco, such as stems and / or tobacco additives. The method of claim 1 wherein the pressurization is carried out at an operating temperature of 60 ° C. to 90 ° C. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial moisture of the tobacco material is in the range of 8 to 14% by weight.