Philip Morris Inc.

General Foods Limited

Kraft General Foods, Inc.

Other

Kraft Foods, Inc.

Ravi Prasad

Kwang Han Cho

Eugene B Fischer

Gerald J Vogel

Jose M Nepomuceno

Jean E Spence

Joseph M Dobbs

Thomas J Clarke

Walter Allen Nichols

Saul N Katz

Michael J O'Brien

Harvey J Grubbs

Ronald Harry Skiff

Martin Gottesman

Diane L Leister

Robert A Scarella

Jean Ellen Spence

Tony M Howell

Gerald James Vogel

Saul Norman Katz

Michael J O'brien

A process for expanding tobacco is provided which employs carbon dioxide gas. Tobacco temperature and OV content are adjusted prior to contacting the tobacco with carbon dioxide gas. The disclosed process is suitable for impregnating and expanding tobacco having a high bulk density. In order to achieve a high bulk density, the tobacco may be compacted or compressed to achieve an increased and more uniform bulk density prior to its impregnation with carbon dioxide. The process may be carried out with a short cycle impregnation in an apparatus according to the invention. A thermodynamic path is followed during impregnation which allows a controlled amount of the carbon dioxide gas to condense on the tobacco. This liquid carbon dioxide evaporates during depressurization helping to cool the tobacco bed uniformly. After impregnation, the tobacco may be expanded immediately or kept at or below its post-vent temperature in a dry atmosphere for subsequent expansion.

Process and apparatus for impregnation and expansion of tobacco

A process is provided for the improved removal of nicotine from tobacco. An essentially nicotine-free solvent in the supercritical or liquid state is fed into a first end of an extraction flow system containing tobacco and a nicotine-rich solvent is discharged from a second end of the extraction flow system. Periodically a portion of extracted tobacco is discharged from the first end of the extraction system while simultaneously a portion of an unextracted tobacco is charged to the second end of the extraction system. Nicotine is then entrapped in an entrapment material or otherwise removed from the solvent and solvent is recycled through the extraction flow system. Various materials are provided as entrapment materials. Among the entrapment materials provided are aqueous solutions containing absorbent selected from various acids and salts. Among the acids and salts provided as entrapment materials are sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, malic acid, lactic acid, malonic acid, succinic acid, acetic acid, glutamic acid and monopotassium citrate.

Process and apparatus for the semicontinuous extraction of nicotine from

An improved method for extracting caffeine from a coffee material, preferably raw coffee solids, with an extractant comprising supercritical carbon dioxide. Caffeine is continuously absorbed from the extractant with an aqueous wash solution in an absorber. This wash solution is continuously treated by reverse osmosis to form a caffeine-containing retentate stream and a permeate stream containing dissolved solids but substantially no caffeine. The permeate stream is recycled and used as wash water in the absorber or is used to prehydrate solid coffee materials, or both. The permeate stream comprises acidic dissolved solids.

Method for decaffeinating coffee materials including a reverse osmosis

A process for expanding tobacco is provided which employs carbon dioxide gas. Tobacco temperature and OV content are adjusted prior to contacting the tobacco with carbon dioxide gas. A thermodynamic path is followed during impregnation which allows a controlled amount of the carbon dioxide gas to condense on the tobacco. This liquid carbon dioxide evaporates during depressurization helping to cool the tobacco bed uniformly. After impregnation, the tobacco may be expanded immediately or kept at or below its post-vent temperature in a dry atmosphere for subsequent expansion.

Process for impregnation and expansion of tobacco

A process is provided for the selective removal of basic materials from plant products, in particular, for removing nicotine from tobacco without materially affecting the content of the other components of the tobacco. Tobacco is traversed with a solvent at high pressure and in a physical state which is either a liquid at a pressure of from about 500-300 atmospheres or a supercritical fluid wherein nicotine and the other components dissolve in the solvent. As the single means of removing substances from the solvent, the solvent is then passed through an acid-containing trap where the solvent is essentially freed of nicotine. The solvent, depleted of nicotine and enriched in the other components, is then recycled to the tobacco to reextract nicotine. In addition, the tobacco may be pretreated with a chemical base which does not substantially react with the tobacco components under ambient conditions and which are not necessarily affected by the process conditions but are nonetheless effective in increasing the amount of nicotine which can be extracted by the process of this invention. Pretreatment of the tobacco with a chemical base neutralizes nicotine salts and permits the extraction process to be carried out under milder conditions.

Process for removal of basic materials

A process and apparatus for caffeine recovery from supercritical carbon dioxide is disclosed. The process involves countercurrent extraction of caffeine from supercritical carbon dioxide with water at pressures in excess of 1,000 p.s.i. in an unpacked extraction column. The apparatus includes an unpacked extraction vessel having a distributor therein for distributing water throughout substantially the entire cross-sectional area of the vessel.

Caffeine recovery from supercritical carbon dioxide

A method of continuously decaffeinating moistened, green coffee solids with supercritical carbon dioxide. Moistened, green coffee beans are moved periodically through an extraction vessel and contacted with continuously flowing supercritical carbon dioxide which extracts caffeine from the moist, green coffee beans. Caffeine is removed from the supercritical carbon dioxide by counter-current contact with wash water in an open vessel. The caffeine-depleted supercritical carbon dioxide is recirculated back to the extraction vessel and the caffeine-bearing wash water is subjected to concentration by reverse osmosis. Acidic, substantially caffeine-free permeate is directed back to the extraction system as wash water, or to moisturize the green coffee beans prior to extraction, or both.

Method for decaffeinating coffee with a supercritical fluid

Aqueous extracts of roasted coffee are stripped of aroma, concentrated and thereafter decaffeinated by means of contact with a decaffeinating fluid such as liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide. Aroma loss is minimized by using water to remove caffeine and aroma from the CO.sub.2 stream, recovering aromatics from this caffeine-containing aqueous stream and adding-back these aromatics to the decaffeinated extract. Preferably equipment cost is minimized by use of a single pressure vessel to transfer the caffeine from the extract stream to the CO.sub.2 and from the CO.sub.2 to the water stream.

Decaffeination of aqueous roasted coffee extract

Decaffeination of aqueous extracts

Growing community of inventors

Midlothian, VA, United States of America

Ravi Prasad