A Comprehensive Analysis of Inorganic Ions and Their Selective Removal from the Reconstituted Tobacco Extract Using Electrodialysis

Shaolin Ge; Qian Chen; Zhao Zhang; Shike She; Bingxia Xu; Fei Liu; Noor Ul Afsar

doi:10.3390/membranes12060597

A Comprehensive Analysis of Inorganic Ions and Their Selective Removal from the Reconstituted Tobacco Extract Using Electrodialysis

Membranes (Basel). 2022 Jun 7;12(6):597. doi: 10.3390/membranes12060597.

Authors

Shaolin Ge^{1

2}, Qian Chen³, Zhao Zhang^{2

4}, Shike She⁴, Bingxia Xu², Fei Liu², Noor Ul Afsar⁵

Affiliations

¹ IAT USTC-AHZY Joint Laboratory of Chemistry & Combustion, Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China.
² Anhui Key Laboratory of Tobacco Chemistry, Anhui Tobacco Industrial Co., Ltd., 9 Tianda Road, Hefei 230088, China.
³ Applied Engineering Technology Research Center for Functional Membranes, Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230088, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Combustion & Pyrolysis Study of CNTC, Anhui Tobacco Industrial Co., Ltd., 9 Tianda Road, Hefei 230088, China.
⁵ Anhui Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Functional Membrane Materials and Technology, Department of Applied Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.

Abstract

Many tobacco stalks, dust, and fines are discharged in the tobacco industry, rich in inorganic minerals ions and nicotine salts. The high salinity and nicotine salts are challenging to be addressed by traditional treatment and are a severe threat that ought to be overcome. Thus, proper techniques can regenerate the tobacco stalks into reconstituted tobacco flakes used as cigarette filler. The electrodialysis process has been a viable approach to removing the inorganic ingredients in wastewater. We studied concentration, pH, and co-related influences with the nicotine and sugar/nicotine contents on the desalination performance. The results show that the inorganic ions such as Cl^-, K⁺, Ca²⁺, and Mg²⁺ ions were successfully removed. When the feed concentration ranges from 3 to 15%, the removal ratio of the K⁺ ions is higher than Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions. As we reported previously, the K⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions are unfavorable for the total particulate matter emission but beneficial to decreasing the HCN delivery in mainstream cigarette smoke. Selective ED is a robust technology to reduce the harmful component delivery in cigarette smoke.

Keywords: electrodialysis; ion exchange membranes; nicotine; reconstituted tobacco extract.

Abstract

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