SI8210993A8 - Process for improving the filling capacity of tobacco - Google Patents

Description

PROCEDURE FOR IMPROVING THE SUITABILITY OF TOBACCO FILLING

Technical field

The process relates to a process for improving the suitability of tobacco filling by treating the tobacco with pressurized gases and then after decompression by heating, whereby the tobacco is treated with nitrogen and / or argon at pressures up to 1000 bar and subjected to additional heat treatment after decompression. Labeling according to the International Patent Classification: A 24 B 3/18.

Technical problem

The technical problem that is to be solved by the invention consists in towers, how to accomplish a process for inflating tobacco to save energy, and to improve the process of high-pressure gas treatment, according to patent file DE-OS 29 03 300, which would increase the capacity of the tobacco to fill and allow further processing in a simpler way.

The state of the art

Such a process is known, for example, from DE-OS 29 03 300 and differs from the known methods for inflating tobacco with tobacco impregnation using volatile organic compounds, di-nitrogen monoxide, SO2 ammonia and CO2 or liquid CO2 low pressures and with rapid drying at temperatures of 150 to 200 ° C and above, which is inflated by drying at high temperatures and removing impregnating liquids. In the known methods, after rapid drying at high temperatures, a puff of tobacco with less than 1 to 3% humidity is obtained, which, due to further processing, returns to a normal moisture content of 12 to 15% or more. In order to avoid © reducing the eligibility for filling due to the increased content of tobacco dust and heavy re-humidification to the so-called new treatment, the tobacco is subjected, sometimes cascadingly, to several autoclaves, according to the procedure of DE-OS 29 03 300. with nitrogen or argon under high pressure, and in some subsequent stage additional heat treatment. Treatment with high pressure gas results in the tobacco accepting gas, whereby high pressure, short intermittent pressure drops and, in this case, humidifying the tobacco prior to processing, make the tobacco accept a sufficiently large amount of gas. With the additional heat treatment, the expanded gas will be closed due to the supply of external heat, so that the tobacco will exert a pressure which acts outwards, and thus will inflate or inflate the structure of the tobacco.

Until recently, it was felt that the eligibility for filling was all the greater if the amount of gas was accepted and accepted. When treating tobacco with high pressures with nitrogen or argon, according to DE-OS 29 03 300, the starting point was to make tobacco. who is to be treated should have a certain initial humidity, since it was considered that tobacco that would have a low initial humidity could not be inflated by a process with high pressure and nitrogen or argon.

Therefore, during the application of this known method, the tobacco was further moistened before high-pressure treatment, after which heat treatment would be carried out in the drying chambers, either by micro-wave or by infrared heating, whereby the tobacco was brought to the desired humidity.

As a disadvantage of this known process, it has been found that tobacco treated in this way is often bound after high pressure gas treatment, which would make it difficult to inflate with conventional post-heat treatment.

Better inflation effects, especially at low pressures, are achieved if the tobacco is subjected to additional heat treatment with saturated water vapor after treatment with high pressure gases, whereby the tobacco is moistened and inflated simultaneously by releasing the condensing heat.

Description of solution to a technical problem

The technical problem of the invention will be solved by a process consisting of the treatment of tobacco with nitrogen at a high pressure of 150 bar and argon at a pressure of 50 bar, and subsequent thermal treatment with water saturated steam.

DE-OS 29 12 322 discloses a process for treating an inlet with C0 ₂ , which, in contrast to the known process, does not deal with liquid but with gaseous C0 ₂ at higher pressures.

Here, too, subsequent heat treatment occurs due to inflating under dry conditions, and at temperatures of 199 to 370 ° C, whereby the tobacco, at its initial humidity of, for example, 15%, is dried by steam or hot steam in a steam oven up to / 'humidity of about 1.5 to 3.2% and at friction rates.

In contrast to the friction process, the process of treating tobacco with high pressure gas, nitrogen and / or argon, according to the invention, as well as inflating tobacco treated with pressure and saturated steam is easily carried out, using the released condensation energy for inflating.

In the process according to the invention waste is very expensive and re-humidification, which is otherwise required for inflated and inflated tobacco according to the process with CO ₂ - I, in the process with CO ₂ according to DEOS 29 12 322, the tobacco which is dried to a humidity of 1 to 3 must be % return to normal humidity for processing. However, this is related to a significant loss of charge force, so it takes more than 24 hours to achieve a simultaneous decrease in the desired humidity level.

In the process of the invention, tobacco, which. is treated with high pressure gas, to the humidity that is responsible for the treatment, then moistens to inflate, after which it is dried normally again in the usual manner to the humidity required for processing.

Without a tendency to opt for a particular mechanism, it can be assumed that, compared to the known method according to DE-OS 29 03 300, in the case of lower humidity tobacco, a larger amount of gas is involved in the observed higher cooling upon gas discharge. The vapor recovery will, in comparison with the additional treatment methods, release much larger amounts of energy through condensation, and with the simultaneous dilution and the associated increase in elasticity, the walls will become less rapid in volume. This is a further advantage of the process of the invention, since high-pressure gas treatment can be performed at a lower pressure, resulting in better results in terms of filling suitability.

It is best to perform pressure treatment at temperatures from 0 to 50 ° C, and if this does not have a particular effect on improving the bloating effect, although at temperatures higher than

At 50 ° C, the substances containing tobacco in the ducts are deposited, and the valve freezes below 0 ° C.

Suitably, the treatment is carried out with water vapor having a density of 0.5 to 10 kg I ^ O / m, i. Water vapor, which is so saturated with K ^ O at a temperature between 100 and 220 °, that when struck by tobacco it acts as saturated vapor, which condenses or moistens.

It is further advantageous if the treated tobacco has a moisture content of about 15%, since then treatment with moisturizing with saturated water vapor leads to optimum final humidity.

It has been found that tobacco can be added, both before high-pressure gas treatment and after thermal steam treatment, to the appropriate flavoring material without any loss of filling eligibility being observed.

A great advantage of the technical realization of the process according to the invention is that the tobacco with its normal humidity or humidity after processing after decompression after treatment with high pressure gas is not sticky and can be processed without further processes.

In addition, this process eliminates the additional humidification of tobacco.

The following examples serve to explain the invention in more detail.

Example 1

Virginia tobacco is treated with nitrogen on a device similar to that shown in DE-OS 29 03 300, with an exemplary * reactor having a sheath temperature of about 40 ° C instead of a cascaded double autoclave. The tobacco cartridge is 200 g. The treatment was performed with the pressures and humidity of tobacco given in Table L I, and the pressure-lowering times of 1.3 to 2 minutes. The tobacco treated in this way is subjected to additional heat treatment for 1 minute, according to the invention, with saturated steam at 100 ° C, or, for comparison, in the usual way with microwaves or in a drying chamber.

In the subsequent heat treatment with saturated steam of impregnated tobacco, the tobacco is spread after treatment with high pressure gas, immediately after decompression, in the form of a thicker layer, which is carried out at a constant rate below the water vapor nozzle. These samples treated with saturated water vapor are subsequently dried with hot air to the desired humidity.

Samples were air-conditioned for 36 hours along standard conditions of 21 ° C and relative humidity of 607;,. Improvement in the ability to fill specimens relative to untreated specimens was measured with a Borgwaldt densimeter.

Table I

Subsequent pressurization procedure - Humidity Improvement of refilling of sachet (bar) of tobacco for filling

Microwaves

Steam

300 12,1% 20% 22,3% 45% 800 12,2% 35% 22,2% 70% 300 12.0% · 57% 800 12,5% 92%

Example 2

Analogous to Example 1, one sample of Virginia and Burlay tobacco were processed each. Tobacco humidity before entering the autoclave was 12%, while the final pressure varied. Nitrogen-impregnated tobacco was heated after decompression with saturated steam at about 100 ° C after decompression. Tables Ha and Ilb show the yields of individual trials, as well as the improvements in eligibility for filling.

Table Ha (Virginia tobacco sample)

Opit I no. Pressure (bar) Humidity (%) Subsequent termi- processing Gas Improvement of eligibility for fire (according to etalophia) 1 150 12.6 saturated vapor ^N 2  ·:. · * » 35% 2 300 11.7 saturated vapor » ₂ 64% 3 800 12.9 saturated vapor » ₂ 102% Table Ilb (Burlay sample tobacco) Experiment Pressure no. (bar) Humidity (%) Subsequent termi- processing Ga s Improvement of eligibility for filling (according to standard) 1 150 12,0 saturated vapor 40% 2 300 12,1 saturated vapor ^N 2 62% 3 800 11.6 saturated vapor -2  85% Example 3 It works analogously to the case 2, only is instead of nitrogen as gas applied argon. The results are shown in tabelema lilac and Illb. Table lilac (Virginia tobacco sample) Experiment 'b no. Pressure (bar) .Humidity ^: (%) . Afterwards- processing Gas Improvement of eligibility for filling (according to standard) 1 50 12,8 saturated vapor argon 38% 2 150 13,1 saturated vapor argon 59% 3 300 12.2 saturated vapor argon 80%

Illb Table (Burlay Tobacco Sample)

Expert no. Pressure (bar) Humidity ($) Subsequent termi- processing Gas Improvement of eligibility for filling (according to standard) 1 50 11.9 saturated vapor argon 31% 2 150 12.2 saturated vapor argon 59% 3 300 12,8 saturated vapor argon 79%

SPECIFICATION OF THE BEST, APPLICANT KNOWLEDGE, A WAY FOR THE ECONOMIC USE OF THE APPLICATION FOUND

When carrying out the process of the present invention, it should be taken into account that the initial humidity of the tobacco is 'chalk' in the range of about 11.5 to about 13%, that the gas pressure does not exceed 800 bar for nitrogen and 300 bar for argon. The minimum pressure value should be 150 bar for nitrogen and 50 bar for argon. When pressurized gas treatment, the temperature must not fall below 0 ° C or exceed 50 ° C. The water vapor density (saturated) should range from 0.5 to 10 kg / m.

Claims (2)

PATENT APPLICATION 1. A process for improving the suitability of tobacco by treating tobacco with gases such as nitrogen or argon at a high pressure of up to 1000 bar and, after decompression, with an additional thermal treatment, characterized in that the nitrogen treatment is carried out, at most, under at a pressure of 150 bar and argon at a pressure of 50 bar at a temperature of 0 to 50 ° C, and subsequent heat treatment saturates with • 3 water vapor with a density of 0.5 to 50 kg / m. 2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the tobacco has a moisture content of up to about 15%.