Drying process for increasing the filling power of tobacco material

US5339837A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• B.A.T. Cigarettenfabriken GmbH · DE

Inventors

• Werner Hirsch · Hamburg, DE
• Arno Weiss · Norderstedt, DE
• Erhard Rittershaus · Hamburg, DE
• Gitta Junemann · Hamburg, DE
• Caspar H. Koene · Hamburg, DE
• Ingo Pautke · Hamburg, DE
• Fritz Schelhorn · Bayreuth, DE
• Herbert Sommer · Düsseldorf, DE
• William J. Stone · Southampton, GB

Key dates

• Filing date: May 14, 1992
• Grant date: Aug 23, 1994
• Expiry date: May 14, 2012

Classification

• Technology area (CPC A): Human Necessities
• CPC primary: A24B3/04
• WIPO field: Other consumer goods
• WIPO sector: Other fields

Abstract

In a drying process for increasing the filling power of tobacco material, the cut and moistened tobacco material is conveyed in a drying gas flow, dried within a tubular drying section and subsequently separated from the drying gas. The drying gas has at a feed point into the drying section a temperature of at least 200.degree. C. and a flow velocity of at least 30 m/sec. The flow velocity of the drying gas is reduced in the drying section. The flow velocity of the drying gas at the charge point into the drying section is at the most 100 m/sec. Within the drying section, to reduce the local heat transfer coefficient and the local mass transfer coefficient between the surface of the tobacco material and the surrounding drying gas, along with the reduction of the flow velocity of the drying gas, the flow velocity of the tobacco material is also reduced. At the end of the drying section the drying gas has a flow velocity of at the most 15 m/sec and a temperature of at the most 130.degree. C.