CN1087918C - Reconstituted tobacco - Google Patents

Abstract

A tobacco industry procedure in which granulated reconstituted tobacco with a tendency to stick between particles is blended with a granulated anti-sticking agent. subjecting a blend of detackifier and reconstituted tobacco particles to conditions which, in the absence of the detackifier, would promote clumping of reconstituted tobacco due to particle-to-particle adhesion, upon exposure of said mass to said conditions Afterwards, the material body is further subjected to a separation process, thereby separating the release agent from the reconstituted tobacco. Using this procedure, reconstituted tobacco can be stored in a compact state without clumping.

Description

A method of operation for the tobacco industry

The present invention relates to the reconstitution of tobacco and reconstituted tobacco.

Tobacco can be reconstituted using extrusion, tape casting or papermaking techniques. Extrusion methods for tobacco remanufacturing are disclosed in GB 2 201 081. In the method of GB 2 201 081 granulated tobacco, starch, binder, water and glycerin are fed into a screw extruder. The extrudate, now in the form of thin ribbons, is cooled, then shredded longitudinally and cut transversely to produce a reconstituted tobacco product in the form of elongated pellets. When such granulated reconstituted tobacco is packaged in bulk form, eg, for transportation and storage, compression or compaction of the reconstituted tobacco often occurs, so that the tobacco particles have a tendency to stick to each other. Therefore, when the remanufactured tobacco is unpacked, it often occurs that a part of the remanufactured tobacco material is agglomerated. The mechanical opening method causes the reconstituted tobacco to be processed to be partially broken into powder.

Various methods have been proposed to overcome the agglomeration phenomenon of granulated reconstituted tobacco described above, however, none have proved to be completely successful. For example, granulated reconstituted tobacco is packaged at lower than conventional moisture contents. However, there are difficulties in maintaining low moisture levels in the presence of humid, hot environmental conditions prevailing. Also, granulated reconstituted tobacco is more prone to crumbling when maintained at a low moisture content.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a completely effective means of avoiding or substantially reducing agglomeration of granulated reconstituted tobacco.

The present invention provides a tobacco industry operation procedure, wherein the granular reconstituted tobacco with a tendency of sticking among the particles is mixed with the granular anti-sticking agent, so that the blended body of the anti-sticking agent and the remanufactured tobacco particles is in the After the body has been exposed to the conditions under conditions where the sticky agent will promote agglomeration of the reconstituted tobacco due to sticking between particles Tobacco is made separately.

It should be pointed out that the anti-blocking agent behaves like dust.

Preferably, the detackifying agent comprises, or consists of, tobacco powder.

In carrying out the method according to the disclosure of GB 2 201 081, an initial step may include grinding the tobacco into fine particle form. In this case it is advantageous to use a fraction of the ground tobacco as detackifying agent according to the invention. This fraction is referred to as the fine particle size fraction, for example not exceeding 100 microns. Hitherto, it has been common practice to discard this fine-grained fraction as waste. In general, the amount of powder produced when tobacco is ground and sieved for the extrusion process disclosed in GB 2,201,081 is either greater than or equal to that required per unit quantity of reconstituted tobacco produced.

Other substances in granular form can also be used as antiblocking agents or components thereof, such as titanium dioxide, chalk, magnesium hydroxide, magnesium carbonate, magnesium sulfate and starch.

Two or more release agents may also be used together.

Preferably, the particulate detackifier is present in an amount of up to about 20% by weight of the admixture of detackifier and reconstituted tobacco. More preferably, the amount of release agent does not exceed about 15% by weight.

The detackifying agent or a component thereof may be a desiccant such as magnesium sulfate or magnesium oxide in anhydrous form.

Suitably, the anti-adhesive agent consists of the substances used in the reconstitution process.

This blending process is preferably carried out directly after the reconstituted tobacco is pelletized. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, it is important that the blending process be performed no later than, or not significantly later than, the point at which the reconstituted tobacco begins to agglomerate.

The blending process can be carried out using a revolving mixing drum in which the granulated reconstituted tobacco is blended with the granulated anti-sticking agent by tumbling action.

An alternative means of blending may include a pneumatic conveying device operable to pneumatically suspend reconstituted tobacco particles in, for example, a stream of air for conveyance. The device includes introduction means for introducing detackifying agent particles into the pneumatically conveyed flow of reconstituted tobacco particles, whereby blending with the reconstituted tobacco particles is effected.

The particulate detackifier may be applied to the moving bed of particulate reconstituted tobacco, and after such application, may be followed by a step of blending or further blending, if necessary.

As a means of facilitating effective blending of the detackifying agent with the reconstituted tobacco, the particles of the aforementioned materials may each be electrostatically charged, with particles of one material being oppositely charged to particles of the other material.

Since the degree of adhesion between the anti-adhesive agent and the reconstituted tobacco is negligible, such as zero or substantially zero, it is sufficient to separate at least a substantial portion, such as 80%, of the anti-adhesive agent from the reconstituted tobacco particles. The level of intensity may be much lower than that which would cause the reconstituted tobacco to break down. Conversely, if the degree of adhesion between the anti-adhesive agent and the remanufactured tobacco particles exceeds a certain minimum value, for example, there is some kind of binder outside the admixture of the anti-adhesive agent and remanufactured tobacco particles, the separation The severity of the process would have to be so severe as to induce unacceptable degradation of the reconstituted tobacco.

Separation can be accomplished using, for example, vibrating perforated conveyors, screens or air separation systems.

In addition to setting up equipment in the production line which is set up specifically for the specific purpose of separation, the separation process can be set up in the production line for the purpose of completing the production line processing, but it can simultaneously undertake the separation of anti-sticking agent particles and reconstituted tobacco particles. Devices that separate tasks to accomplish.

In a first embodiment of the present invention, pelletized reconstituted tobacco is produced according to the extrusion method of GB 2 201 081. The granulated reconstituted tobacco is then blended with starch powder having a particle size of less than 100 microns in an amount equivalent to 10% by weight of the reconstituted tobacco. After one month of storage, only 0.6% of the reconstituted tobacco was found to be agglomerated in the blended reconstituted tobacco and starch powder, compared to a control of the same reconstituted tobacco not blended with anti-sticking agent The body clumped up to 15% after being placed for one month.

In a second embodiment of the present invention, after the granulated reconstituted tobacco is produced according to GB 2 201 081, the reconstituted tobacco is blended with 12% by weight of tobacco powder as an anti-sticking agent, the particle size of which is less than 100 microns. In this case it was found that the degree of agglomeration was reduced to one third of the corresponding level for the same reconstituted tobacco body.

Preferably, the reconstituted tobacco has no agglomeration of greater than about 5% by weight, more preferably no greater than about 2-3% by weight, and most preferably 0%.

Experiments using tobacco powders much larger than 100 microns (12% by weight) as a detackifier showed that tobacco powders of this size class were less effective at reducing reconstituted tobacco agglomeration than tobacco powders with particle sizes below 100 microns.

Claims (11)

1. An operation method in the tobacco industry, characterized in that the granular remanufactured tobacco with a tendency of sticking between the particles is mixed with the granular anti-adhesive agent, so that the blended body of the anti-adhesive agent and the remanufactured tobacco particles is in a state of The presence of a detackifier promotes agglomeration of the reconstituted tobacco due to interparticle adhesion, and subsequent separation of the body after exposure to such conditions removes the detackifier Separated from reconstituted tobacco. 2. according to the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that the proterties of described antisticking agent is dusty. 3. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that the particles of said release agent are no larger than about 100 microns. 4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said detackifying agent comprises tobacco. 5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said anti-sticking agent comprises a substance selected from the group consisting of titanium dioxide, chalk, magnesium hydroxide, magnesium carbonate, magnesium sulfate and starch. 6. A method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that said anti-adhesive agent is provided by more than one substance. 7. A method according to any one of claims 1-3, characterized in that said detackifying agent is provided by a substance used in the formulation of reconstituted tobacco. 8. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the detackifying agent comprises a desiccant. 9. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said antiblocking agent is present in said body in an amount of up to about 20% by weight. 10. A method according to claim 5, characterized in that said detackifying agent is provided by more than one substance. 11. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that said anti-sticking agent is provided by more than one substance.