Improving the smoking quality of papermaking tobacco sheet extract by using electrodialysis

Papermaking tobacco sheet is an important reclaimed process for cigarette making. Traditionally, the pressure driven membrane was often used to isolate the effective compounds from the tobacco sheet extract. However, this method is difficult to remove small ionic compounds. Besides, membrane fouling is a major problem for effective use of these pressure driven membrane technologies. In this study, the electrodialysis process is used to removal the chloride ions and nitrate ions, thus the smoking quality of papermaking tobacco sheet extract can get improved. Three types of electrolytes ( Na₂SO₄ , NaCl and HCl) are chosen to prevent the generation of precipitation. The results indicate that 0.1mol/L HCl at current density of 30mA/cm² is the optimal condition for the electrodialysis process. The removal rates of the Cland NO₃⁻ in tobacco sheet extract are 97% and 98.4%, respectively. The electrodialysis process cost was estimated to be 0.11$/L. Naturally, electrodialysis is not only technological feasible, environmental-friendly and economical-attractive for tobacco extract treatment.