Tobacco – Tobacco treatment – Puffing
Patent
1998-11-25
2000-12-12
Silverman, Stanley S.
Tobacco
Tobacco treatment
Puffing
131293, 131900, 131902, 131903, A24B 318
Patent
active
061584401
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. .sctn.371 of prior PCT International Application No. PCT/JP98/01277 which has an International filing date of Mar. 24, 1998 which designated the United States of America.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method of producing an expanded tobacco material, and more particularly, to a method of producing an expanded tobacco material by using carbon dioxide as an expanding agent.
BACKGROUND ART
It has been a practice that tobacco materials are expanded in order to save the amount of the tobacco materials used in tobacco articles such as cigarettes, and to moderate the flavor and taste, etc., of the tobacco articles. This expansion is a technique of allowing the dried and shrunk tobacco tissue to be restored to a state close to that of the live tobacco leaf, and constitutes an important technique in the manufacture of tobacco articles.
In principle, the expansion of the tobacco material is effected by allowing an expanding agent to permeate into the tobacco tissue, followed by heating the tobacco material so as to cause the volume of the expanding agent to be expanded, thereby expanding the shrunk tobacco tissue.
As such a method of expanding tobacco material, there is known a method using carbon dioxide as an expanding agent.
For example, Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 56-50830 discloses a method wherein a tobacco material is immersed in a liquid carbon dioxide under a pressure of, for example, about 24.6 to 31.6 kg/cm.sup.2 to allow the liquid carbon dioxide to be impregnated into the tobacco material, followed by converting the impregnated liquid carbon dioxide into solid carbon dioxide and subsequently evaporating the solid carbon dioxide under high temperatures so as to expand the tobacco tissue. In this method, the entire tobacco material is immersed in the liquid carbon dioxide, with the result that the flavor components of the tobacco material are extracted into the liquid carbon dioxide, lowering the flavor and taste of the expanded tobacco material. Further, a large amount of the liquid carbon dioxide attached to the tobacco material is converted into the solid carbon dioxide, with the result that the tobacco material is solidified and firmly consolidated. The consolidated tobacco material requires a considerably large force to loosen it before the expansion step under heat, resulting in the generation of fine particles unsuitable for the manufacture of cigarettes, leading to a low yield. To overcome this difficulty, it is recommended to drip the liquid carbon dioxide off the tobacco material after the immersion of the tobacco material in the liquid carbon dioxide until the liquid carbon dioxide ceases to form a continuous liquid stream. In this case, however, an additional time is required for dripping off the liquid carbon dioxide, and a satisfactory result cannot still be obtained.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-50952 discloses a method wherein carbon dioxide in the form of gas is impregnated into tobacco material, followed by rapidly heating the resultant tobacco material to effect the expansion (expanding). This expansion method using the gaseous carbon dioxide certainly permits avoiding the above-noted difficulty inherent in the technique of using a liquid carbon dioxide described above. However, since only a small amount of carbon dioxide is retained in the tobacco material, the carbon dioxide tends to be escaped off before the step of expanding under heat, resulting in failure to expand sufficiently the tobacco material.
Further, Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 4-228055 and Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 5-219928 disclose a method of expanding the tobacco material, in which the tobacco material is sufficiently cooled in advance to increase the amount of impregnated carbon dioxide by condensing the carbon dioxide gas. More specifically, in the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Disclosure (Kokai) No. 4-228055, the tobacco material is cooled by contacting and mixing it with a misty cold mixture co
REFERENCES:
patent: 5143096 (1992-09-01), Steinberg
patent: 5649552 (1997-07-01), Cho et al.
patent: 5711319 (1998-01-01), Cumner
Kan Katsuhiko
Nakanishi Yukio
Uchiyama Kensuke
Uematsu Hiromi
Japan Tobacco Inc.
Ruller Jacqueline A.
Silverman Stanley S.
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