Method for the production of homogenized tobacco material
The present invention relates to method for production of a slurry for homogenized tobacco material, said method comprising: —Selecting tobacco of one or more tobacco types; —Coarse grinding said tobacco; —Blending said tobacco of one or more tobacco types; and—Fine grinding said tobacco of one or more tobacco types.
1. A method for production of homogenized tobacco material, said method comprising:
selecting tobacco of two or more tobacco types;
coarse grinding the two or more tobacco types in parallel or in series to obtain tobacco particles of a mean size between about 0.25 millimeters and about 2.0 millimeters;
blending the two or more tobacco types, to form a blend of tobacco, wherein blending the two or more tobacco types takes place after coarse grinding the tobacco;
fine grinding the blend of tobacco, wherein the fine grinding forms a tobacco powder having a mean size up to about 0.12 millimeters.
2. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the coarse grinding is performed before the blending.
3. Method according to claim 1 , wherein, before the coarse grinding, the method comprises:
shredding the tobacco to obtain tobacco strips having a mean size between about 2 millimeters and about 100 millimeters.
4. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the selecting tobacco of two or more tobacco types comprises selecting:
at least about 30 percent of bright tobacco on a dry weight basis of total amount of tobacco in the blend of tobacco;
between about 0 percent and about 40 percent of dark tobacco on a dry weight basis of total amount of tobacco in the blend of tobacco; and
between about 0 percent and about 40 percent of aromatic tobacco on a dry weight basis of total amount of tobacco in the blend of tobacco.
5. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adding a binder to the blend of tobacco in an amount comprised between about 1 percent and about 5 percent on a dry weight basis of the blend of tobacco.
6. Method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
adding an aerosol-former to the blend of tobacco in an amount comprised between about 5 percent and about 30 percent on a dry weight basis of the blend of tobacco.
7. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
adding an aerosol-former to the blend of tobacco in an amount comprised between about 5 percent and about 30 percent on a dry weight basis of the homogenized tobacco material.
8. Method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
Mixing a binder and the aerosol-former before adding the binder and the aerosol-former to the blend of tobacco.
9. Method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
Mixing the binder and an aerosol-former before adding the binder and the aerosol-former to the blend of tobacco.
10. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the blend of tobacco comprises between about 20 percent and about 93 percent on a dry weight basis of the homogenized tobacco material.
11. Method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
adding a cellulose pulp to the blend of tobacco in an amount between about 1 and about 3 percent on a dry weight basis of the blend of tobacco.
12. Method according to claim 1 , comprising:
forming a slurry including the tobacco powder; and
casting a continuous web of the slurry.
13. Method according to claim 12 , wherein the web at casting comprises between about 60 percent and 80 percent moisture on a total weight of the web.
14. Method according to claim 13 , further comprising:
drying the cast web;
winding the cast web;
wherein the moisture of the web at winding is between about 7 percent and about 15 percent of the total weight of the cast web.
15. Method according to claim 12 , further comprising:
drying the cast web;
winding the cast web;
wherein the moisture of the cast web at winding is between about 7 percent and about 15 percent of the total weight of the cast web.