Nicotine extraction process

Comas is pleased to introduce its latest state of the art: a brand-new patented process suitable to extract nicotine from the tobacco leaves or its residual parts.
With the innovative Comas development, the nicotine, present in the tobacco leaves at different percentage, is concentrated without the use of volatile organic solvents.
The obtained product at 99.7% grade, applicable in liquid or solid form, can be used on different applications not only in the tobacco industry, as it overcomes the other systems currently available on the market.
The nicotine extraction process takes place through the following phases:

1.    Maceration: the tobacco, milled at a defined size, is soaked with a solution of hot water and soda into a maceration tank. The product is then filtered. the residual cake is sent to disposal, while the liquid solution is processed into high pressure heated tank.

2.    Water/nicotine Separation: at this stage, the solution is heated up and flashed into a tank. The residual liquid part (dark water) returns to the maceration tank for being recovered for next batches. The steam solution is then conveyed to a series of separation steps, where pressure and temperature are controlled to maximize the separation.

3.    Purification: the steam solution is passed through a combined hot/cold purification steps to obtain a nicotine concentrated liquid. The water fraction is continuously recycled upstream the line, to be reused in the maceration phase. 

By adopting this advanced solution, customers can enjoy superior experience and quality of the final production, high standards of energy efficiency and saving, simplicity and smart resource management.
In Comas R&D center, a pilot plant is available for training and testing of different material. The flexibility of the line allows to work with a wide range of specifications, according to the target to be reached.

Shape the future with the ultimate Comas extraction process: get in contact with the Sales dept to find out the most suitable scenario for your company.