A study towards yield optimization for the Expanded Tobacco II process of Philip Morris Holland B.V.

In the tobacco industry, Philip Morris Holland B.V., part of Philip Morris International, is a cigarette manufacturing company. Within its Primary department tobacco leaves are pretreated in such a way to meet the requirements for cigarette production, which is done in the Secondary department. Tobacco pretreatment processes are: cutting, adding moisture, sauces, semi-finished products and flavors. One of the semi-finished products is expanded tobacco. The aim of a expanded tobacco production process is to stretch the tobacco cells in order to create a permanent volume increase. Tobacco expansion within Philip Morris Holland B.V. is accomplished by means of the Dry Ice Expanded Tobacco technology. In several process steps tobacco cells get impregnated with liquid CO2, which together with the intercellular moisture reacts whereby CO2-hydrate forms. After a impregnation cycle has been completed, the tobacco cells are quickly heated to a temperature of 300ºC. Due to the temperature increase, the CO2-hydrate inside the tobacco cells disintegrates and causes enough gas, and as a result inner pressure, to stretch the cells to the desired volume. The hot expanded tobacco gets cooled down and finally moisture is added to meet the final product requirements. During the several process steps multiple tobacco waste flows, which consist of tobacco fines (dust), are separated from the main tobacco material flow. Since tobacco in general is an expensive material Philip Morris Holland B.V. has the demand for waste reduction…Mechanical, Maritime and Materials EngineeringMarine and Transport TechnologyTransport Engineering and Logistics2014.TEL.783