Tobacco Treatment

Abstract

This invention provides a method for removing undesirable constituents from tobacco which includes extracting tobacco material in an aqueous or organic solvent and filtering the product of the extraction using a horizontal belt filter. The extract and insoluble tobacco residue may be further treated enzymically, chemically or otherwise to remove a complement of undesirable constituents. The extract and insoluble tobacco residue are recombined to form a regenerated tobacco material that is less harmful when combusted than the original material.

Description

[0001]The present invention relates to the treatment of tobacco and, in particular, to the extraction of selected constituents from tobacco, for example, in order to reduce certain smoke components.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Tobacco material may be treated and processed to produce a modified blend which, when combusted, gives rise to smoke in which specific constituents of the smoke are selectively reduced or removed compared to untreated tobacco. The sugar and nicotine content of the tobacco, however, preferably remains substantially unaffected by this process, so that the taste and smoking properties of the tobacco are maintained.[0003]Methods for removing or at least reducing selected constituents from tobacco are known in the art. Such methods may comprise an extraction step in which tobacco material is extracted with an aqueous or organic solvent, a separation step in which the extracted solution is separated from the insoluble tobacco residue by filtration, centrifugatio...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0030]In another embodiment, the process comprises extracting tobacco with an aqueous or organic solvent, treating the tobacco with an enzyme, rinsing the enzyme-treated tobacco with a salt solution and

Problems solved by technology

However, they are not without their disadvantages.

The throughput of such extraction and separation processes is clearly limited by the maximum capacity of the chosen apparatus.

Furthermore, as the size of the mixing vessel used in the batch reactor increases, maintaining turbulent mixing at the edges of the vessel becomes difficult.

The scale of the extraction and treatment steps is therefore limited by the size of the vessel that can effectively be used in practice.

This means that whilst these extraction processes are effective, they would not be suitable for running on a commercial scale.

These filters were designed to separate fluid from heavy and dense materials and, as such, there was nothing to suggest that they could be used in the treatment of tobacco.

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