RECOVERY OF TOBACCO CONSTITUENTS FROM PROCESSING

Abstract

A method includes volatilizing one or more compounds from tobacco, or reaction products thereof, into a gas stream and recovering at least one of the one or more volatilized compounds or reaction products from the gas stream. The method may be carried out in connection with a dry ice expanded tobacco (“DIET”) process where volatile tobacco compounds are recovered rather than incinerated as is typically done with current DIET processes.

Claims

1. A composition comprising nicotine and one or more tobacco-derived compounds, wherein the one or more tobacco-derived compounds are obtained by a process comprising condensing a gas stream employed in a tobacco expansion process comprising the tobacco-derived compounds to form a condensate, and fractionating the condensate to selectively recover or enrich the one or more tobacco-derived compounds.

2. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the one or more tobacco-derived compounds are obtained by condensing a gas stream that is employed in a dry ice tobacco expansion process.

3. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the one or more tobacco-derived compounds in the gas stream are generated from tobacco by volatilization at a temperature at between about 150° C. and about 400° C.

4. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the one or more tobacco-derived compounds in the gas stream are obtained by treating tobacco that is impregnated with non-gaseous carbon dioxide with a gas stream comprising steam, at a temperature at between about 150° C. and about 400° C., thereby volatizing the one or more tobacco-derived compounds.

5. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the one or more tobacco-derived compounds are obtained by condensing the gas stream in more than one stage at different temperature ranges and forming more than one condensate.

6. A composition according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the tobacco-derived compounds is a terpene, a tobacco alkaloid, or an alkylpyrazine.

7. A composition according to claim 1, wherein the process further comprises subjecting a condensate comprising the one or more tobacco-derived compounds to fractionation.

8. A composition according to claim 1, wherein one or more of the tobacco-derived compounds that is obtained in one or more condensates by the process is selected from the group consisting of α-pinene, β-pinene, α-terpinene, limonene, eucalyptol, linalool, camphor, borneol, citronellol, β-caryophyllene, l-nicotine, l-myosmine, nicotyrine, cotinine, 3-cyanopyridine, 2-methyl-pyrazine, 2-ethyl-pyrazine, 2,3-dimethyl-pyrazine, 6-ethyl-2-methyl-pyrazine, trimethyl-pyrazine, 2-ethyl-5-methyl-pyrazine, and dimethyethyl-pyrazine.

9. An aerosol-generating composition for use in a heated aerosol-generating smoking device, comprising a composition according to claim 1.

10. The aerosol-generating composition according to claim 8 or claim 9, wherein the composition further comprises propylene glycol and glycerol.

11. A method comprising: volatilizing one or more tobacco-derived compounds into a gas stream; recovering a composition comprising at least one of the one or more volatilized constituents or reaction products from the gas stream; and fractionating the composition to selectively recover or enrich at least one of the one or more volatilized constituents or reaction products.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein volatilizing the one or more tobacco-derived compounds into the gas stream comprises heating tobacco impregnated with non-gaseous carbon dioxide by a gas stream comprising steam in a tobacco expansion process.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein recovering the at least one of the one or more volatilized compounds comprises condensing the gas stream at one or more temperature ranges.

14. A method according to claim 11, further comprising introducing one or more of the recovered tobacco-derived compounds to an aerosol-generating composition for use in a heated aerosol-generating smoking device.

15. A method for preparing an aerosol-generating composition for use in a heated aerosol-generating smoking article, comprising: formulating the composition according to claim 1 with one or more aqueous composition comprising nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerol or a combination of at least two of the foregoing substance.

Description

[0059] FIG. 1 is a schematic flow diagram illustrating a process for recovering volatile compounds from a DIET process.

[0060] Referring now specifically to FIG. 1, a simplified overview of a DIET process in which volatile tobacco compounds are recovered in shown. The process includes contacting tobacco 100 with liquid carbon dioxide 110 to form liquid carbon dioxide impregnated tobacco 120 under pressure sufficient to maintain the carbon dioxide in liquid form. The pressure is then decreased, such as to atmospheric pressure, which results in freezing of the liquid carbon dioxide to form dry ice-impregnated tobacco 130. The dry ice-impregnated tobacco 130 is contacted with hot gas 140 to result in expanded tobacco 150. The resulting gas may be separated into tobacco dust 155, process gas 145, and tail gas 142 that contains volatile tobacco compounds. The process gas 145 may be heated and used as, at least a portion of, hot gas 140 in continued operation. The tail gas 142 is directed to recovery apparatus 200, such as condensers or the like, where the volatile tobacco compounds are recovered. Water may be added to the expanded tobacco 150 to produce reordered tobacco 170 having a moisture content similar to the starting tobacco material 100.

Thus, methods, systems, devices, compounds and compositions for RECOVERY OF TOBACCO CONSTITUENTS FROM PROCESSING are described. Various modifications and variations of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments. Indeed, various modifications of the described modes for carrying out the invention which are apparent to those skilled in chemistry and chemical engineering or related fields are intended to be within the scope of the following claims.