Patent Application
20170245543
The present disclosure relates to a method of extracting volatiles from tobacco material and/or a method of making a pre-vapor formulation including the extracted volatiles.
An electronic vaping device includes a heater element, which vaporizes a pre-vapor formulation to produce a vapor. The pre-vapor formulation may include aerosol formers, water, and/or flavors.
At least one example embodiment is related to a method of extracting volatiles from tobacco material and/or a method of making a pre-vapor formulation including the extracted volatiles.
In at least one example embodiment, a method of making a pre-vapor formulation includes heating tobacco material to a temperature ranging from about 50° C. to about 250° C. to form heated tobacco material, collecting volatiles from the heated tobacco material, and combining the volatiles with a pre-vapor formulation immediately after the collecting step.
In at least one example embodiment, the method may further include combining an additive with the tobacco material prior to the heating step. The additive may include one or more of a casing solution, a solvent, a pH adjuster, and a flavorant. The solvent may include one or more of water, ethanol, glycerine, and propylene glycol.
In at least one example embodiment, the collecting step may include inserting adsorbent material in the heated tobacco material. The adsorbent material is configured to adsorb the volatiles. The method may also include desorbing the volatiles from the adsorbent material and/or placing the adsorbent material in a reservoir containing the pre-vapor formulation and in an electronic vaping device.
In at least one example embodiment, the collecting step may include condensing the volatiles. In at least one example embodiment, the collecting step may include bubbling the volatiles through a solvent trap.
In at least one example embodiment, the method may also include rotating the tobacco material during the heating step. The tobacco material may be in the form of one of a slurry, a wet tobacco mass, and a substantially dry tobacco mass.
In at least one example embodiment, the method may also include maintaining the pre-vapor formulation at or below room temperature. The method may also include adjusting a pH of the tobacco material prior to the heating step.
In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material may be heated for about 2 seconds to about 5 minutes. The volatiles are combined with the pre-vapor formulation immediately after the collecting. The tobacco material comprises a blend of two or more different tobacco varieties.
The various features and advantages of the non-limiting embodiments herein may become more apparent upon review of the detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings are merely provided for illustrative purposes and should not be interpreted to limit the scope of the claims. The accompanying drawings are not to be considered as drawn to scale unless explicitly noted. For purposes of clarity, various dimensions of the drawings may have been exaggerated.
Some detailed example embodiments are disclosed herein. However, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of describing example embodiments. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many alternate forms and should not be construed as limited to only the example embodiments set forth herein.
Accordingly, while example embodiments are capable of various modifications and alternative forms, example embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit example embodiments to the particular forms disclosed, but to the contrary, example embodiments are to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of example embodiments. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the description of the figures.
It should be understood that when an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “connected to,” “coupled to,” or “covering” another element or layer, it may be directly on, connected to, coupled to, or covering the other element or layer or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there are no intervening elements or layers present. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the specification. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
It should be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers, and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer, or section from another region, layer, or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer, or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer, or section without departing from the teachings of example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms (e.g., “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like) may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It should be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the term “below” may encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing various example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “includes,” “including,” “comprises,” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
Example embodiments are described herein with reference to cross-sectional illustrations that are schematic illustrations of idealized embodiments (and intermediate structures) of example embodiments. As such, variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, are to be expected. Thus, example embodiments should not be construed as limited to the shapes of regions illustrated herein but are to include deviations in shapes that result, for example, from manufacturing.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which example embodiments belong. It will be further understood that terms, including those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
An electronic vaping device, such as an electronic cigarette or an electronic cigar, produces a vapor upon heating a pre-vapor formulation. The vapor may pass through a substrate including tobacco material, where the vapor elutes volatiles from the tobacco material. In other embodiments, tobacco material may be heated. The volatiles may be low volatility compounds that have a tendency to stay at the heater, which may cause decomposition at the high temperatures of the heater and may form a residue that may degrade performance of the heater.
At least one example embodiment, relates to a method of extracting volatiles from tobacco material and adding the volatiles to a pre-vapor formulation. At least one example embodiment relates to an apparatus for forming the pre-vapor formulation including extracted volatiles.
In at least one example embodiment, the pre-vapor formulation may be a material or combination of materials that may be transformed into a vapor. For example, the pre-vapor formulation may be a liquid, solid and/or gel formulation including, but not limited to, water, beads, solvents, active ingredients, ethanol, plant extracts, natural or artificial flavors, and/or vapor formers, such as glycerin and propylene glycol. The pre-vapor formulation includes volatiles extracted from tobacco as described herein.
The various figures show sequential process steps. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that these different steps may involve batch, continuous or semi-batch operations. For example, the mass of treated tobacco may be mixed with additives and also pressurized at certain temperatures in a batch type vessel for a certain period of time before it is vented off or purged into a collection vessel. It should also be understood that fermentation or enzymatic processes potential to produce tobacco specific flavors are also included as part of the process for tobacco flavor creation and isolation.
In at least one example embodiment, as shown in
In at least one example embodiment, as shown in
In at least one example embodiment, the heating step 100 includes heating tobacco material to a temperature ranging from about 50° C. to about 250° C. (e.g., about 100° C. to about 200° C. or about 125° C. to about 175° C.) to form heated tobacco material. The heating step 100 may be conducted for about 1 second to about 1 hour (e.g., about 2 seconds to about 50 minutes, about 5 second to about 40 minutes, about 10 seconds to about 30 minutes, or about 20 seconds to about 20 minutes). It should be clear to those skilled in the art that the duration of the heating step or steps depends on the size of the vessel, the mass of tobacco being heated, and whether it is agitated or not, the nature and age of the tobacco, the temperature at which the tobacco is heated, and any prior treatment steps on the same tobacco.
In at east one example embodiment, the heating step 100 is conducted at atmospheric pressure. In other example embodiments, higher or lower pressures may be used.
In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material may include material from any member of the genus Nicotiana. In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material includes a blend of two or more different tobacco varieties.
Examples of suitable types of tobacco materials that may be used include, but are not limited to, flue-cured tobacco, Burley tobacco, Dark tobacco, Maryland tobacco, Oriental tobacco, rare tobacco, specialty tobacco, blends thereof and the like. The tobacco material may be provided in any suitable form, including, but not limited to, tobacco lamina, processed tobacco materials, such as volume expanded or puffed tobacco, processed tobacco stems, such as cut-rolled or cut-puffed stems, reconstituted tobacco materials, blends thereof, and the like.
In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material is in the form of a substantially dry tobacco mass.
In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material may be rotated, agitated, and/or stirred during the heating step 100.
In at least one example embodiment, the tobacco material may wetted or treated with an additive prior to the heating step 100, and may be in the form of a slurry or wet tobacco mass. The additive may include at least one of a solvent, flavors, pH modifying agents, and a casing solution. The additive may be added to the tobacco material in order to release salt bound flavors and/or to introduce hydrolytic breakdown of flavor precursors. The additives may be chosen to promote specific reactions, such as Maillard reactions. Changing the pH of tobacco may facilitate hydrolytic break down of glucosidically bound flavors.
In at least one example embodiment, the solvent includes at least one of water, ethanol, glycerin, and propylene glycol. The solvent may improve the extraction and transfer efficiency of tobacco related flavor compounds from the heat treated tobacco material to a collection medium used in the collecting step 200 as described below. Using solvents of different polarities and volatilities may result in creating tobacco flavors with different sensorial profiles. In at least one example embodiment, a portion of the pre-vapor formulation may be used as the solvent.
Tobacco extracts obtained by non-selective solvent extraction may contain extracted materials of different chemical nature and molecular sizes and/or weights. Using this type of extracting pre-vapor formulations may pose issues due to compounds that may accumulate in the heating section of an electronic vaping device, which may lead to deposits and chemical reactions with byproducts. The method of at least one example embodiment as disclosed herein may include use of highly volatile and easily transferable compounds that are eluted from tobacco due to their high vapor pressure.
In at least one example embodiment, the flavors may include any suitable flavor including menthol, mint flavors, fruit flavors, herb flavors, vegetable flavors, and the like.
In at least one example embodiment, the pH modifying agent includes one of an acid or a base. The pH modifying agent is selected to adjust a pH of the tobacco material to a desired level. The pH of the tobacco material may range from about 1 to about 14 or about 3 to about 12.
In at least one example embodiment, the casing solution may include water, humectants, such as propylene glycol, sugar, cocoa, licorice, fruit extracts, and other ingredients.
In at least one example embodiment, once the tobacco material has been heated, volatiles are released and may be collected 200.
In at least one example embodiment, the method also includes collecting 200 volatiles from the heated tobacco material and combining 300 the volatiles with a pre-vapor formulation immediately after the collecting step 200. Thus, the volatiles are combined with the pre-vapor formulation at the site of collection to minimize and/or reduce losses and/or undesirable chemical reactions.
In at least one example embodiment, the pre-vapor formulation may be maintained at or below room temperature prior to the combining step 300.
In at least one example embodiment, the pre-vapor formulation includes a vapor former. Suitable vapor formers include, but are not limited to, polyhydric alcohols, such as propylene glycol, triethylene glycol, 1,3-butanediol and glycerin; esters of polyhydric alcohols, such as glycerol mono-, di- or triacetate; and aliphatic esters of mono-, di- or polycarboxylic acids, such as dimethyl dodecanedioate and dimethyl tetradecanedioate. Example vapor formers are polyhydric alcohols or mixtures thereof, such as propylene glycol, triethylene 1,3-butanediol and glycerin.
In at least one embodiment, the pre-vapor formulation may include propylene glycol and glycerin included in a ratio of about 3:2. In at least one embodiment, the ratio of propylene glycol and glycerin may be substantially 2:3 and 3.7. In at least one embodiment, the vapor former is included in an amount ranging from about 40% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation to about 90% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation (e.g., about 50% to about 80%, about 55% to about 75% or about 60% to about 70%).
In at least one example embodiment, the pre-vapor formulation optionally includes water. Water may be included in an amount ranging from about 5% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation to about 40% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation, or in an amount ranging from about 10% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation to about 15% by weight based on the weight of the pre-vapor formulation.
In at least one example embodiment, the vapor-forming substrate may comprise a single vapor former such as, for example, glycerin. Alternatively, in some example embodiments, the vapor-forming substrate may comprise a combination of two or more vapor formers.
In at least one embodiment, the pre-vaporization formulation may also include a flavorant in an amount ranging from about 0.01% to about 15% by weight (e.g., about 1% to about 12%, about 2% to about 10%, or about 5% to about 8%). The flavorant may be a natural flavorant or an artificial flavorant. In at least one embodiment, the flavorant is one of tobacco flavor, menthol, wintergreen, peppermint, herb flavors, fruit flavors, nut flavors, liquor flavors, and combinations thereof. The flavorant may include one or more volatiles extracted from tobacco material as disclosed herein.
In embodiments, the nicotine is included in the pre-vaporization formulation in an amount ranging from about 2% by weight to about 6% by weight (e.g., about 2% to about 3%, about 2% to about 4%, about 2% to about 5%) based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In at least one embodiment, the nicotine is added in an amount of up to about 5% by weight based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In at least one embodiment, the nicotine content of the pre-vaporization formulation is about 2% by weight or greater based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In another embodiment, the nicotine content of the pre-vaporization formulation is about 2.5% by weight or greater based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In another embodiment, the nicotine content of the pre-vaporization formulation is about 3% by weight or greater based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In another embodiment, the nicotine content of the pre-vaporization formulation is about 4% by weight or greater based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation. In another embodiment, the nicotine content of the pre-vaporization formulation is about 4.5% by weight or greater based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation.
In at least one example embodiment, the volatiles may be included in the pre-vaporization formulation in an amount ranging from about 0.01% by weight based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation to about 5% by weight based on the total weight of the pre-vaporization formulation (e.g., about 0.5% by weight to about 4% by weight or about 1% by weight to about 3% by weight). Thus, the heating step 100 may be maintained and/or repeated until a desired amount of volatiles have been added to the pre-vapor formulation.
As shown in
While not shown, fewer or additional heating steps may be included in the heating step 100.
In at least one example embodiment, as shown in
In at least one example embodiment, the sorbent may be placed in a flavor cartridge coupled with an electronic vaping device so that flavor delivery may be achieved through elution of flavors from the adsorbent to the vapor steam passing through the cartridge and flavor delivery may be enhanced by heating the flavor cartridge.
As used herein, a “sorbent” is a substance that may condense or hold molecules of other substances on its surface, and/or take up other substances (i.e., through penetration of the other substances into its inner structure and/or into its pores). The sorbent may be any adsorbent, any absorbent, and/or any substance that may perform these functions.
In at least one example embodiment, the sorbent may be at least one of an activated carbon sorbents or other microporous materials. The sorbent may be any material, which has the ability to absorb and/or adsorb gas constituents on the surface thereof include or to assimilate such constituents into the body thereof. The sorbent may one or more adsorbents. Suitable sorbents and/or adsorbents include carbons such as activated carbon, aluminas, silicates, molecular sieves, zeolites, and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The sorbent may be in the form of a plurality of beads or in the form of a single, monolithic body.
In at least one example embodiment, the sorbent may he selected to absorb and/or adsorb volatiles having a desired particle size so as to achieve selective absorption of volatiles desired to be included in the pre-vapor formulation.
In at least one example embodiment, the sorbent is a microporous material (i.e., microporous sorbents) such as, an activated carbon. The microporous sorbent may have pores with widths and/or diameters of less than about 20 Angstroms (Å).
In at least one example embodiment, the method may also include desorbing 206 the volatiles from the sorbent. The volatiles may be desorbed from the sorbent by extraction in an aerosol forming solvent, such as at least a portion of the pre-vapor formulation during the combining step 300 as shown in
In at least one example embodiment, the volatiles may be desorbed from the sorbent using a solvent, and then immediately combined with the pre-vapor formulation after collection of the volatiles.
In at least one example embodiment, instead of combining the volatiles with the pre-vapor formulation, the sorbent may be placed in an electronic vaping device between a heater and a mouth end of the electronic vaping device so that the volatile flavors may be eluted to the vapor during vaping.
In another example embodiment, the desorbing may include heated desorption followed by bubbling the volatiles through a solvent trap and filter. The solvent may include a portion of the pre-vapor formulation or any other suitable solvent, such as water or ethanol.
In at least one example embodiment, as shown in
In at least one example embodiment, once volatiles are condensed, the combining step 300 may include mixing 320 the condensed volatiles with a pre-vapor formulation.
In at least one example embodiment, as shown
Moreover, when the words “generally” and “substantially” are used in connection with geometric shapes, it is intended that precision of the geometric shape is not required but that latitude for the shape is within the scope of the disclosure. When used with geometric terms, the words “generally” and “substantially” are intended to encompass not only features which meet the strict definitions but also features which fairly approximate the strict definitions.
When the word “about” is used in this specification in connection with a numerical value, it is intended that the associated numerical value include a tolerance of ±10% around the stated numerical value. Moreover, when reference is made to percentages in this specification, it is intended that those percentages are based on weight, i.e., weight percentages.
It will now be apparent that a new, improved, and nonobvious electronic vaping device has been described in this specification with sufficient particularity as to be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications, variations, substitutions, and equivalents exist for features of the electronic vaping device which do not materially depart from the spirit and scope of the invention Accordingly, it is expressly intended that all such modifications, variations, substitutions, and equivalents which fall within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims shall be embraced by the appended claims.
