KR960005615B1 - Treatment of tobacco by inertia gas - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention is a method of swelling a large quantity of leaf tobacco by lowering the temp. and pressure of treatment. The processing steps are : (a) to treat leaf tobacco with alcohol, glycerin and prophylene glycol at the rate of 0.5-3% : 1-5% : 0.1-2% ; (b) to put in a pressure vessel and inject inactive gas under the pressure of 20-1200 kg/cm2 for 0.1-15 min. and maintain the temp. of -10 - 0 deg.C ; (c) to treat with heat of 105-450 deg.C on removing the pressure. The leaf tobacco is swelled by spreading the gas in a moment through this method.

Description

Leaf tobacco swelling method using inert gas

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cigarette swelling method, and more particularly to a method for commercially swelling a large amount of tobacco while lowering the heat treatment temperature and pressure in a batch tobacco swelling method using an inert gas.

Among the various methods for improving the physical properties of tobacco, the area of recent interest is the method of bulging leaf tobacco tissue to increase the volume to improve the swelling. This is because the leaves of the leaves immediately before harvest are dried and matured after harvesting, and moisture and volatile fragrance components are released, which causes a significant part of the tissue to shrink. This results in a thickness reduction of 20% to 40% to remain in the contracted state. Unlike other plant leaf tissues, these leaf tobaccos contain a large amount of volatile fragrances and organic materials, which provide abundant flavors to smokers, but it is a problem to maintain proper physical properties of leaf tissues required in the tobacco industry. It implies

Thus, the contracted leaf tobacco tissue has high physical moisture hygroscopicity of leaf tobacco, not only delays combustibility, but also lowers hardness and adversely affects the appearance system and year-round throughput. Therefore, leaf tobacco has a need to increase the swelling capacity by increasing the volume and increasing the volume of the air layer far enough between the foliar cells, tissues, and cell gaps contracted during drying and ripening. Increasing swelling through these various processes can be used as an important determinant in adjusting and maintaining the general quality level of product cigarettes.

In other words, reducing the density and low specific gravity through the physical treatment process using raw media for tobacco leaves contributes to cost reduction because it results in increasing the volume per weight by improving the physical properties obtained at that time. In particular, it responds to the preference trends of smokers who prefer the mild and delicious tobacco that the modern tobacco industry aims for the low density caused by cigarette swelling. Tobacco manufacturers and research institutes in various countries have been competitively studying how to inflate tobacco raw materials such as lobules, stems and leaflets.

U.S. Patent No. 1,789,435 discloses a method of contacting hot gas after treatment with carbon dioxide gas, and U.S. Patent No. 3,524,452 and U.S. Patent No. 3,753,440 disclose a leaf tobacco swelling process using Freon-11, a highly stable organic solvent. In addition, US Patent No. 3,771,533 discloses a method of infiltrating liquid carbon dioxide into leaf tobacco tissues for swelling, and US Patent No. 4,234,250 uses a modern process using carbon dioxide in earnest.

The treatment methods described above have many problems in terms of physical and chemical stability of the expansion medium, as well as matters related to the harmfulness to the human body and environmental pollution. Therefore, the direction to study the expansion process recently is to develop a expansion method that is completely harmless to humans and environmental pollution such as water or steam nitrogen.

The freeze-drying method using water has been studied since attempted by US Pat. No. 3,223,090, but there is a problem that a long drying time is required due to the slow sublimation rate of water saturated in the leaf tobacco. U.S. Patent Nos. 4,407,306 and 4,932,424 disclose a swelling method using supersaturated steam, but this method has a problem of using high temperature heat treatment and rapid airflow.

In general, the method to increase the swelling should be considered that the leaf tobacco cells or tissues that have been contracted during the drying process will be inflated by the air layer that is destroyed without damage or re-inflated, causing the air bubbles to swell. It can be said to keep its original shape.

German Patent Nos. 2,903,330 and US Pat. Nos. 4,289,146 and 4,577,646 disclose the expansion of tobacco material using nitrogen. The expansion method using nitrogen can minimize the change of chemical content or physical damage during the expansion process, and it is harmless to the environment even after being discharged to the atmosphere without harming the working environment or human body at the time of treatment.

The use of nitrogen as the expansion medium has the advantage that nitrogen is infinitely present in the air and does not produce a reaction substance harmful to the human body even after the expansion of tobacco.

On the other hand, the conventional swelling method using carbon dioxide gas has to be designed to meet the high pressure because the liquid or gas or carbon dioxide gas in the mixed state to pressurize to a high pressure to saturate. Therefore, a new method for producing a good expanded product at a lower pressure than that of the conventional method is required by reducing the gas consumption by using a method of pressurizing and saturating with pure gas only and significantly lowering the temperature of the sample and the pressure vessel during pressure saturation. have.

In addition, according to the conventional method, there is a problem in that a large amount of tobacco crumbs is produced because the tobacco leaves are swelled and then broken in the post-processing process after the tobacco is dried.

It is an object of the present invention to reduce the pressure burden on the treatment apparatus by lowering the heat treatment temperature and pressure in the tobacco swelling method using the inert gas as described above, thereby increasing the processing capacity by increasing the treatment capacity and maintaining the minimum moisture retention after treatment. By providing a swelling method that can reduce the amount of debris cigarettes.

The above object of the present invention is to add alcohol, glycerin and propylene glycol to the tobacco leaf before expansion in the tobacco swelling method using an inert gas such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide gas 1-5.5% of the weight of the tobacco and lower the treatment temperature to 0 ℃ or less Is achieved by adjusting to 500-600kg / cm 2.

The present invention treats the leaf tobacco with alcohol, glycerin and polyethylene glycol in the range of 0.5-3%, 1-5% and 0.1-2% of the weight of the tobacco, and puts it in a closed processing apparatus, and then supplies an inert gas to a predetermined pressure. Injected into saturation and heat-treated with 105-450 ℃ superheated steam or hot air, instantaneous diffusion occurs due to the pressure rise by saturated gas inside the leaf tobacco tissue, and swelling occurs in the cells or tissues inside the leaf tobacco by its force. It is configured in such a way as to

According to the present invention, the degree of swelling of the cigarette, that is, the swelling rate, is determined by the processing conditions when the gas is saturated and the processing conditions at the heat treatment step. Therefore, in the present invention, when treating with gas pressure, the treatment is performed for 6 seconds to 15 minutes as in the prior art, but it is appropriate to maintain the treatment temperature at 0 ° C or lower, particularly at -5 ° C to 0 ° C. These heat treatment temperatures are determined by the eutectic point of the additive alcohol, glycerin and propylene glycol mixtures, which range from 0.5-3%, 1-5% and 0.1-2% by weight of leaf tobacco, respectively. It is used in combination at the ratio of.

The temperature during pressure treatment can be cooled using a cooler or other cooling device. However, the most effective method is cooling obtained by expansion enthalpy produced by releasing the pressure momentarily at one side pressure by adding multiple processing devices in stages. Heat is used to cool other devices.

In the present invention, when nitrogen or carbon dioxide is used as the inert gas, nitrogen is injected at a pressure of 100-1200kg / cm 2 and carbon dioxide is injected at a pressure of 20-75kg / cm 2. In addition, the amount of gas to be treated is good to inject about 10% of the weight of the cigarette.

In the gas pressure treatment, glycerin and propylene glycol penetrate into the tissue of the leaf tobacco by the gas pressure, resulting in less chipping of the leaf tobacco. The mixture of alcohol, glycerine and propylene glycol used in the present invention is preferably used in the range of 1-5.5% of the weight of the cigarette, the maximum amount of which should not exceed the amount added during the manufacture of the cistern.

The gas-treated tobacco is cooled to -5 ° C to 0 ° C in the processing unit, and the cooled tobacco is discharged from the processing unit and heat treated with superheated steam at 105 ° C to 450 ° C. Long-term storage at low temperatures lowers the swelling rate and should therefore be heat treated immediately after exiting the gas treatment system.

And heat treatment is good to be made for a short time of 1 second to 6 seconds. And during heat treatment, tobacco tobacco must be heat treated uniformly temporarily, so it is better to heat hot air or high frequency heating while conveying to conveyor belt. It's good to have it happen in seconds.

9-50% of the moisture content of the cigarette is appropriate for the gas pressure treatment, and if the moisture content is too small, the tobacco tends to crumble during the treatment process, and if the amount is too high, the heat absorption is large and the swelling rate may be lowered. Most preferred moisture content is 11-24%.

According to the present invention as described above, even if the gas pressure during the gas pressure treatment is maintained at 500-600kg / cm 2, the expansion ratio appears to be 75% or more. Can be increased.

Particularly, according to the present invention, glycerin and propylene glycol are treated in the leaf tobacco before the puffing treatment, so that even when the water content of the leaf tobacco is insufficient, the chipping of the tobacco is reduced during the puffing treatment and subsequent treatment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to Examples.

Example 1

A mixture of 15 g of ethanol, 20 g of glycerine, and 5 g of propylene glycol was uniformly treated in 1000 g of yellow herb leaf tobacco with 15% moisture content, and put into a sealed pressure container, and nitrogen gas was injected at a predetermined pressure. After the treatment for minutes, the pressure was released by saturation temperature, and the saturated steam at 170 ° C. was heat-treated for 3 seconds in an expansion tube having a vapor density of 10 kg / m 3 or more.

The expansion rate of expanded leaf tobacco is shown in Table 1.

Table 1

Comparison of Expansion Rate after Gas Treatment by Saturation Temperature

Example 2

The leaf tobacco was expanded by using the method of Example 1 but using nitrogen gas and varying the gas pressure.

[Table 2]

Comparison of Expansion Rate after N ₂ Gas Treatment by Pressure

Example 3

The method of Example 1 was used, but instead of nitrogen gas, carbon dioxide was used, and the leaf tobacco was expanded by changing the gas pressure.

Table 3

Comparison of Expansion Rate after CO ² Gas Treatment by Pressure

Example 4

The method of Example 1 was used, but yellow leaf tobacco was used as the leaf tobacco, and nitrogen gas and CO ² gas were used. The density of saturated steam during the heat treatment was 10 kg / m 3, and an electric furnace was used for heating.

The test results are shown in Table 4.

Table 4

Comparison of Expansion Rate According to Heat Treatment Temperature

Claims (5)

The leaf tobacco was treated with alcohol, glycerin and propylene glycol, and the inert gas was injected into the pressure vessel containing the leaf tobacco at a pressure of 20-1200 kg / cm 2 so that the inert gas in the leaf tobacco cell or tissue was pressurized and saturated at -10 ° C to 0 ° C. And then, immediately after releasing the pressure heat treatment at a high temperature of 105-450 ℃ to increase the swelling sound of tobacco leaves. The method of claim 1, wherein the alcohol, glycerin and propylene glycol are included in the range of 0.5-3%, 1-5% and 0.1-2% by weight of the tobacco leaf, respectively. The method of claim 1 wherein the gas saturation in the pressure vessel occurs within 0.1 to 15 minutes and the pressure release within the pressure vessel occurs within 1 to 15 minutes. The method of claim 1 wherein the sample temperature after pressure release is maintained at −70 ° C. to 5 ° C. and the heat treatment takes place between 0.1 seconds and 5 minutes after pressure release. The method according to claim 1, wherein the heat treatment is performed by a mixed heat medium in which 1-15 kg / m3 saturated steam and heated air are mixed in a 1: 1 ratio.