WO2004034825A1

WO2004034825A1 - Catalytic cigarette filter

Info

Publication number: WO2004034825A1
Application number: PCT/ES2003/000530
Authority: WO
Inventors: Juan Guerrero Moles; Salvador Clemente Izquierdo
Original assignee: Juan Guerrero Moles; Salvador Clemente Izquierdo
Priority date: 2002-10-21
Filing date: 2003-10-20
Publication date: 2004-04-29
Also published as: EP1629736A1; ES2206046A1; AU2003274146A1; ES2206046B1

Abstract

The invention relates to a catalytic cigarette filter comprising two segments which are made from acetate fibre or sulphite paper (1) and (3) and which are separated from one another by an intermediate cavity (2) containing a chemical catalyst, said catalyst being formed by a fixed bed of a filtering binding agent and a complex of oxidising and reducing agents. The aforementioned catalyst, having chemical formula Na, Ca, Al2Sl7O18) 7H20K (Mg, Fe2+) (Al, Fe3+) (OH), is obtained from natural mineralogical products which are formed in volcanic rocks. The endothermic and hydrophilic nature of the catalyst, which has a large porous surface, encourages oxidation/reduction reactions between the organic compounds and the toxins in the inhaled tobacco smoke, thereby causing the formation of different chemical species and producing nicotine- and tar-free exhaled smoke and a refined taste for the smoker.

Description

DESCRIPTION

Catalytic filter for cigarettes. -

The present invention relates to a catalytic filter for cigarettes, thanks to which it is possible to reduce to zero the levels of nicotine and tar of the smoke that reaches the mouth of the smoker by aspiration.

This result is due to the fact that the filter incorporates, in a cavity of its central part, a chemical catalyst formed by a fixed bed of filtering binder

(binder) and a complex of oxidants and reducers, based on metal oxides as active elements and various microelements, which favors oxidation reactions - reduction of harmful substances present in tobacco smoke, which are transformed into others and remain so retained.

STATE OF THE TECHNIQUE. -

Cigarette tobacco smoke is a spray of droplets dispersed in a gas or vapor. At the high temperatures at which the cigarette's ignition end emerges, at about 800 ° C, most of the organic compounds and toxins are in the gas and vapor phase, because a thermal combustion reaction has taken place, also creating compounds oxidized and other various chemical substances that are inhaled by the smoker. About four thousand of all these compounds and substances have been identified, which due to their effects on body tissues can be classified as chemical asphyxiants, irritants and carcinogenic compounds. Of the toxic substances in tobacco smoke, three in particular stand out for their ability to produce pathologies: nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide. These elements easily pass into body fluids and are absorbed by the tissues.

Nicotine is the main active of tobacco, responsible for producing dependence on smokers. It is a colorless alkaloid without oxygen or therapeutic uses (quite the contrary, it is used as an insecticide), which is absorbed by 90% in the lungs when it comes from the combustion of cigarettes. Each cigarette contains up to 3.5 grams of nicotine. It is a stimulant that acts in various parts of the body, accelerating the heart rate, increasing the risk of coronary insufficiency or producing adrenaline release that acts on the nerve centers that control blood pressure, among other pathologies. Its pharmacological action includes electro-cortical activation and muscle relaxation, causing cardiovascular and endocrine symptoms that force the need for its consumption.

The tar of cigarettes is a mixture of chemicals (hydrocarbons and carbon) that make up the solid fraction of smoke produced in combustion. It is a black viscous substance that when inhaled with the smoke is deposited in the tissues that cover the areas of the mouth, throat and lungs in which the smoke comes into contact. The tar of cigarettes has the same chemical composition that causes cancer. Actually, it is the trigger for most of the diseases that tobacco produces.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless and very toxic gas that emerges from the combustion of tobacco and the role of cigarette. When breathing through the lung, it displaces the red blood cell oxygen and forms carboxyhemoglobin, a substance that is not suitable for oxygen transport. Massively inhaled carbon monoxide causes death from brain and tissue anoxia. High rates produce a decrease in the entry of oxygen and lower fixation of this to hemoglobin, increasing arteriosclerosis, among other pathologies. Recent work indicates that carbon monoxide is the most responsible factor in the occurrence of heart attacks, sudden death, chronic respiratory diseases and deaths in the fetus.

It is evident, therefore, that one of the global public health problems currently in force is caused by tobacco. So much so, that all cigarette manufacturers are obliged by different governments, through very strict laws, to reduce tobacco toxins, causing many diseases and deaths in the world (on the order of four million people year) .

According to direct contacts with European manufacturers of traditional filters for cigarettes, based on cellulose and acetate fibers, there is currently only one catalyst used in the filters on the market. It is an active carbon compound as an absorbent, but its results are not very satisfactory due to its rapid saturation.

In order, therefore, to cover this lack and give a virtually definitive solution to the health problem generated by tobacco, a new catalyst for cigarette filters has been developed which, due to the chemical transformations that occur in it, is reduced to zero the level of nicotine and tar from the smoke that reaches the mouth of the smoke.

THE INVENTION. -

The catalytic filter for cigarettes of the present invention is composed of two segments of identical length made of cellulose paper or acetate fiber, one in the mouth part and one in the tobacco part, separated by an intermediate cavity occupied by the chemical catalyst, which consists of a fixed bed of binder filter agent (binder) of 0 to 0,100 mm of granolumetry, and a dose of 250 to 300 mg of a complex of oxidants and reducers, based on metal oxides as elements assets and various microelements, which occupies 100% of the volume of the filter bed. Specifically, the chemical formula of the catalyst is:

Na, Ca, (Al ₂ Sl ₇ O ₁₈ ) 7H ₂ 0 K (Mg, Fe ²⁺ ) (Al, Fe ³⁺ ) (OH) (I)

And its composition, is:

a) Metal oxides: 65.3% silicon oxide (Si0 ₂ ), 15.1% aluminum oxide (A1 ₂ 0 ₃ ), 4.1% potassium oxide (K ₂ 0), 3.1 % sodium oxide (Na ₂ 0), 2.7% ferric oxide (Fe ₂ 0 ₃ ), 2.7% calcium oxide (CaO), 1.9% ferrous oxide (FeO), 1.5 % magnesium oxide (MgO), 0.9% anganous oxide (MnO), 0.42% water (H ₂ 0), 0.4% titanium oxide (Ti0 ₂ ) and 0.12% phosphorus oxide (P ₂ 0 ₅ ).

b) Microelements (pp): Vanadium (V), gallium (Ga), scandium (Se), strontium (Sr), lithium (Li), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), molybdenum (Mo ), nickel (Ni), niobium (Nb), cobalt (Co), tungsten (W), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), tin (Sn), cesium (Ce), zirconium (Zr).

c) Rare earth microelements (ppm): Cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), yttrium (Y), europium (Eu), lutetium (Lu), yterbium (Yb) cadmium (Cd), holmium (Ho), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), radius (Ra), samarium (Sm), germanium (Ge) and erbium (Er).

All these components of the chemical catalyst object of the invention are present in each particle thereof. All are of natural and physiologically acceptable origin, given the safety of the compound.

The catalyst of formula I and of the above-mentioned composition is endothermic and hydrophilic, and with a large porous surface, so that when the filter bed comes into contact with the upstream of the inhalation fumes of cigarette tobacco, a precipitation, condensation and dehydration on the surface of the bed by absorption, favoring a chemical oxidation-reduction reaction between the organic compounds and toxins of the smoke, and the complex of oxidants and reducing agents of formula I, by virtue of which chemical species are formed different from the first, resulting in an outgoing smoke with zero nicotine and zero tar, and with a purified taste for the smoker.

The catalytic filter developed for cigarettes is designed to be an integral part of the body of the cigarette itself, at the end where it is sucked or smoked. However, it can also be used as an integral part. of the mouthpieces for smokers, in the wide part of the mouth where they fit cigarettes and cigars in general.

In the drawings accompanying the present specification for a better understanding of the invention, Figure 1 is a perspective view of the developed filter, with a longitudinal section revealing the intermediate cavity occupied by the chemical catalyst, while the figure 2 shows in diagram the three segments of the filter and the flow direction of the smoke produced during the aspiration of the smoker.

MODE OF REALIZATION. -

The complex of oxidants and reducers that occupies 100% of the volume of the filter bed (2) of the chemical catalyst, of formula I, has been obtained from natural mineralogical products formed in volcanic rocks that contain a series of very active free radicals, as well as endothermic and hydrophilic properties. These products have highly crystalline and chemically stable aluminum and hydrated silicates, whose structure is very porous, being able to incorporate atoms of all metals in changing proportions.

The catalyst of the invention being endothermic and hydrophilic, and with a large porous surface, when the filter bed (2) comes into contact with the upstream of the inhalation fumes of the cigarette, from the tobacco, after crossing the first paper segment or fiber (3), a precipitation, condensation and dehydration is created on the surface of the filter bed by absorption, favoring a chemical oxidation reaction. reduction between the organic compounds and toxins of the inhalation smoke and the complex of oxidants and reducers of formula I, by virtue of which gases and vapors are absorbed, compounds are trapped and molecules sifted, forming chemical species different from the first, giving As a result, a smoke that, after passing through the final segment of fiber or paper (1), leaves the filter towards the mouth of the smoker with zero nicotine and zero tar, and with a purified flavor.

The filter bed that occupies the central cavity (2) of the filter of the invention, and which is the essence thereof, acts as a catalyst for oxidation-reduction reactions of organic compounds and toxins contained in tobacco smoke, including nicotine and tar, and as in all this type of redox reactions, where there is a transfer of electrons, oxidizing some elements and reducing others, such harmful compounds of smoke are transformed into different ones, becoming trapped in the form of particles in the filter bed, resulting in a salient smoke with zero nicotine and zero tar.

Pending results of qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis of cigarette inhalation smoke demonstrating this surprising result, which is not so much if you consider that in the developed filter not only a physical smoke filtering operation takes place, through the segments (1) and (3) of usual material, but fundamentally a chemical oxidation-reduction process of the harmful substances in the catalyst filter bed (2), which are transformed into others and are thus retained, an experience has been carried out, as simple as conclusive of the result obtained, which is described below. According to the procedure of the FTC standard, ten cigarettes were smoked through an automatic smoking machine. Five of these cigarettes had a conventional filter, and the other five had a filter treated with the catalyst of the invention. Each cigarette was assigned an identical smoke collection nozzle.

When the ten cigarettes were smoked, the corresponding nozzles were removed. At first glance, the effectiveness of the new catalyst was already proven, since while the nozzles coupled to the cigarettes with the conventional filter appeared blackened, those coupled to the cigarettes with the treated filter seemed unused. Then the filters were removed and weighed; the difference in mgr. between the filters treated with the catalyst and those not treated, as well as between the first before and after the test, it was total retention in nicotine and tar.

The products used in the preparation of segments (1) and (3) that are separated by the cavity (2) occupied by the catalyst, the shape and dimensions thereof, and all the details will be independent of the object of the present invention. accessories that may arise, as long as they do not affect their essentiality.

Claims

1. Catalytic filter for cigarettes, composed of two segments of identical length made of cellulose paper or acetate fiber, one in the mouth part (1) and one in the tobacco part (3), characterized essentially by the cavity intermediate (2) between said segments is occupied by a chemical catalyst, formed by a fixed bed of filtering binder (binder) of 0 to 0,100 mm of granolumetry, and of a dose of 250 to 300 mg of a complex of oxidants and reducing agents which occupies 100% of the bed volume, chemical formula I: Na, Ca, (Al ₂ Sl ₇ 0ι ₈ ) 7H ₂ 0 K (Mg, Fe ²⁺ ) (Al, Fe ³⁺ ) (OH), with The following composition: a) Metal oxides: 65.3% silicon oxide (Si0 ₂ ), 15.1% aluminum oxide (A1 ₂ 0 ₃ ), 4.1% potassium oxide (K ₂ 0) , 3.1% sodium oxide (Na ₂ 0), 2.7% ferric oxide (Fe ₂ 0 ₃ ), 2.7% calcium oxide (CaO), 1.9% ferrous oxide (FeO ), 1.5% magnesium oxide (MgO), 0.9% manganous oxide ( MnO), 0.42% water (H ₂ 0), 0.4% titanium oxide (Ti0 ₂ ) and 0.12% phosphorus oxide (P ₂ O ₅ ); b) Microelements (ppm):

Vanadium (V), gallium (Ga), scandium (Se), strontium (Sr), lithium (Li), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium Cr), molybdenum

(Mo), nickel (Ni), niobium (Nb), cobalt (Co), tungsten (), barium (Ba), beryllium (Be), tin (Sn), cesium (Ce), zirconium (Zr); c) Rare earth microelements (ppm): Cerium (Ce), lanthanum (La), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), yttrium (Y), europium (Eu), lutetium (Lu), yterbium (Yb) cadmium (Cd), holmium (Ho), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), radius (Ra), samarlo (Sm), germanium (Ge) and erbium (Er).

2. Catalytic filter for cigarettes, according to the first claim, characterized in that the endothermic and hydrophilic character of the chemical catalyst, with a large porous surface, combined with the oxidative-reducing power of the complex of formula I, produce thermal and oxidation-reduction reactions that transform the organic compounds and toxins of tobacco inhalation smoke into different chemical species, resulting in zero nicotine and zero tar.

3. Use of the catalytic filter for cigarettes, according to claims 1 and 2, forming an integral part of the cigarette itself, at the suction end.

4. Use of the catalytic filter for cigarettes, according to claims 1 and 2, as an integral part of any type of smoking nozzle attachable to cigarettes and cigars in general by the suction end.

5. Use of the catalytic filter for cigarettes, according to claims 1 and 2, as a component of systems or products that act as filters for cigarettes according to claims 3 and 4.