WO2001058288A1 - Method for improving the filling ability of tobacco - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for improving the filling ability of tobacco, such as cut tobacco leaves, or ribs, or tobacco additives, whereby the tobacco material with an initial water content of up to 15 wt % is treated with a gas, comprising nitrogen and/or argon, at pressures from 50 to 1000 bar with a continuous, or staged compression, followed by a continuous or staged decompression, whereby the compression and decompression steps occur in, either an autoclave, or a cascade-like series of several autoclaves and, finally, a thermal after-treatment of the withdrawn tobacco material. The invention is characterised in that the compression is carried out at a working temperature of over 55 DEG C, preferably from 60 to 90 DEG C and the final water content of the tobacco is in the range of 8 to 14 wt. %.

Description

 METHOD FOR IMPROVING THE READY EIT

FROM TOBACCO

The invention relates to a method for improving the fillability of tobacco, such as cut tobacco leaves or ribs or tobacco additives, by treating the tobacco material having up to about 15% by weight of starting moisture with a treatment gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon at pressures of 50 to 1,000 bar with continuous or step-like compression followed by continuous or step-like decompression, the compression and decompression steps taking place in either an autoclave or, in the case of cascade-like switching, in several autoclaves, and subsequent thermal aftertreatment of the tobacco material discharged.

Such processes, which are also known as IMCOM swelling processes, have been compared to the pressure treatment of

Tobacco with carbon dioxide, ammonia or volatile organic gases has proven to be beneficial. For example, DE 31 19 330 AI describes such a blowing process with working temperatures in the autoclave of from 0 to 50 ° C., using a tobacco material with a moisture of up to 15% by weight and post-treatment to increase the filling capacity or the degree of blowing provided with steam. It was hereby taken into account that a lower moisture content of the tobacco of 10 to 15% by weight led to a desired stronger cooling of the material to be discharged

Leads tobacco material while relaxing.

Furthermore, DE 34 14 625 C2 discloses a cascade process, according to which the most varied of measures, such as cooling the treatment gas before the reactor is charged,

Cooling the autoclave or using a supercooled and liquefied treatment gas a low working temperature should be brought about in the impregnation of the tobacco. The tobacco moisture can be arbitrary and for example in a range from 10 to 30% by weight, but it is expressly required that the

Autoclave temperature or its cooling water temperature must not exceed 50 ° C.

This is also confirmed in accordance with DE 39 35 774 C2 in connection with a cascade-like expansion process in which the treatment gas is circulated via a cooler in order to maintain the required low impregnation temperatures of 25 or 45 ° C.

Although good values with regard to increasing the filling capacity of tobacco or the degree of swelling are already achieved with the above-mentioned expanding processes, they are relatively expensive because of the required cooling of the autoclave (s) and because of the additional cooling of the treatment gas.

The invention has for its object to improve the previous INCOM method and to avoid the previously considered necessary and uneconomical cooling measures for compression with equally good or better values in terms of filling capacity or blowing effect.

According to the invention, a method of the type mentioned at the outset is therefore proposed, which is characterized in that the compression is carried out at a reactor temperature of over 55 ° C.

Surprisingly, it has been shown that in the case of low tobacco moisture levels in the range of up to 15% by weight, the previous one Teaching that requires a low treatment temperature does not lead to optimal blowing results. Rather, it was only by increasing the treatment temperature during compression that surprisingly good values with regard to the blowing effect or the filling ability could be achieved.

In terms of the process, this also leads to the advantage that the heat of compression does not have to be dissipated, that is to say no additional cooling of the autoclave or the autoclaves is required.

In the following example, the method according to the invention is explained in comparison to the prior art. The test results show the different influence of the for different tobacco moisture levels

Working temperature on the degree of swelling. According to the previous teaching, in the case of a tobacco moisture content of 18% by weight, an increase in the working temperature above 40 ° C. leads to a deterioration in the blowing effect. On the other hand, tobacco moisture levels below 15% by weight show significant improvements if the high-pressure treatment is carried out at working temperatures of 60 and 80 ° C. Surprisingly, the levels of expansion that can be achieved at low tobacco moisture and higher working temperatures are even partially above the values obtained under conventional conditions.

example

The high pressure treatment was carried out in a laboratory autoclave with a content of 2 l used. A jacket for the circulation of liquid media was used to set the desired working temperatures. The pressure build-up took place from below, the pressure decrease upwards. Several valves made the intended circuit schemes possible. A compressor was used to set the final pressure. A thermocouple measured the tobacco temperature in the upper segment of the tobacco fill.

The laboratory device for thermal aftertreatment consisted of a permeable wire mesh serving as a conveyor belt, baffles for forming the tobacco fleece in the desired width, a steam nozzle with a slot-like outlet opening and a steam suction device arranged under the belt. The aftertreatment was done with saturated steam.

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

Table 1

The tobacco samples were spread in flat plastic dishes and conditioned in a standard atmosphere at 21 ° C and 62% relative humidity. The filling capacities were determined using a Borgwaldt densimeter, and the specific volume in ml / g was converted to a nominal moisture of 12% by weight and a nominal temperature of 22 ° C. From the data of the untreated comparison or base and the expanded patterns, the relative filling capacity improvement, also known as degree of swelling, is calculated according to the following formula, in which F _ß denotes the filling capacity of the base and F the filling capacity of the expanded tobacco:

Δ% = <F _E -F _B ) * 1 0% / F _B

The tests were carried out with tobacco moisture levels of 8, 12 and 14 and, as a comparison, 18% by weight. The

Working temperatures were set to 40, 60 and 80 ° C by thermostatting. The final pressure was 700 bar, the pressure reduction was carried out in a time interval of about 0.5 min. All tests were based on a uniform mixture of Virginia tobacco and the described aftertreatment method with saturated steam.

The results of the tests are shown in Table 2 below, those of the comparative test in Table 2a below. In the tables, T _{A means} the

Tobacco temperature immediately before removal from the autoclave as the discharge temperature and Δ% the relative improvement in filling capacity or the degree of swelling.

Table 2

Table 2a

The comparison of the above tables clearly shows the positive effect of higher working temperatures of 60 and 80 ° C on the improvement in filling capacity when tobacco with moisture of less than 15% by weight is used.

Claims

claims 1. A method for improving the filling capacity of tobacco, such as cut tobacco leaves or ribs or tobacco additives, by treating the tobacco material having up to about 15% by weight of starting moisture with a treatment gas consisting of nitrogen and / or argon at pressures of 50 to 1,000 bar in the case of continuous or step-like compression followed by a continuous or step-like decompression, the compression and decompression steps taking place in either an autoclave or, in the case of cascade-like switching, in several autoclaves, and subsequent thermal aftertreatment of the tobacco material discharged, characterized in that the compression is carried out in a Working temperature of over 55 ° C is carried out. 2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the compression is carried out at a working temperature of 60 to 90 ° C. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the initial moisture of the tobacco material is in the range of 8 to 14 wt .-%.