JPS6437B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method for drying leaf tobacco, shiitake mushrooms, etc., and more specifically, a drying method in which drying by conventional heating and dehumidification and drying by reduced pressure are performed in parallel. It is related to.

[Conventional technology]

A conventional method of drying leaf tobacco, shiitake mushrooms, etc. includes circulating bulk drying.

This method uses a fan to forcefully blow hot air heated by a burner into the drying chamber. Once the air in the drying chamber has absorbed sufficient moisture from the leaf tobacco, etc., and is saturated, hot and humid air is forcibly discharged from the damper. It is something to do.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] Circulating bulk drying is a very excellent drying method in terms of productivity, labor saving, and economic efficiency, but on the other hand, leaf tobacco becomes green due to excessive heating of hot air. There were problems such as withering, forced blowing of warm air, and forced exhaustion of hot and humid air, which resulted in a large release of aromas and fats and oils that affected the aroma and taste of cigarettes.

The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to further improve drying efficiency by using relatively low-temperature hot air and uniformly distributing the hot air, and to prevent green wilt and flaking. To provide a drying method that prevents overdrying and deterioration of aroma and taste.

[Means for solving problems]

The gist of the present invention, which solves the above-mentioned problems, is to connect a pressure reduction mechanism and a heating mechanism to a drying chamber, and to operate the pressure reduction mechanism when necessary to exhaust the air in the drying chamber, so that the atmospheric pressure in the chamber reaches a predetermined level. When the pressure has dropped to a certain level, warm air heated by the heating mechanism is sucked into the drying chamber, and after raising the pressure inside the drying chamber to a certain level, the intake of hot air is stopped to reduce the temperature and humidity inside the drying chamber. The temperature and humidity in the drying room is depressurized by replacing it with wind until the air pressure drops to the specified level again.
A method of drying leaf tobacco, shiitake mushrooms, etc. by repeating a series of steps of lowering the humidity of the air while drying under reduced pressure.

[Effect]

In this invention, when the depressurization mechanism is activated, the air in the drying chamber is exhausted and the atmospheric pressure in the chamber is reduced to produce a vacuum drying effect.Furthermore, when the pressure in the chamber is reduced to a predetermined atmospheric pressure, warm air is sucked in. A conventional drying method is carried out in parallel with a method in which the interior air pressure is increased through heating, and warm air is evenly distributed and filled in the room to repeatedly perform heating and dehumidification to promote the production of aromatic flavor. This increases drying efficiency.

〔Example〕

1 to 7 show an example of a leaf tobacco drying apparatus according to the method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a drying room, 2 is a boiler room connected to the bottom of the drying room 1, 3 is a manually operated exhaust valve installed at the top of the drying room 1, and 4 is a drying room 1 and a boiler room 2. 5 is a vacuum pump for discharging and decompressing the air in the drying chamber 1; 6 is a burner for heating the air in the boiler chamber 2; 7 is a guide frame provided facing the inner wall of the drying chamber 1; Reference numeral 8 indicates a plurality of organizing rods installed at regular intervals between the guide frames 7, 9 indicates an interval horizontally placed between the organizing rods 8, and 10 indicates the upper part of the interface between the drying chamber 1 and the boiler room 2. and a porous floor plate formed in the middle part of the drying chamber 1; 11 is an opening/closing door formed in the drying chamber 1; 12 is a damper provided in the boiler room 2; 13 is a lever operated when the exhaust valve 3 is opened and closed; spring, 15
1 is a pressing rod that is pulled by a spring 14 and presses the air supply valve 4 in the closing direction; 16 is a leaf tobacco placed in the drying chamber 1;

In the leaf tobacco drying apparatus constructed as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the air in the drying chamber 1 is constantly exhausted and depressurized by the vacuum pump 5. If this state continues for a while, the air supply valve 4 Due to the working spring 14, the suction force generated by the reduced pressure inside the drying chamber 1 exceeds the pressing force of the press rod 15, and accordingly, the air supply valve 4 opens and warm air from the boiler room 2 flows into the drying chamber 1. Inhaled. Furthermore, when the air pressure inside the drying chamber 1 rises to some extent due to the inhalation of the warm air,
The pressing force of the pressing rod 15 is exceeded again, the air supply valve 4 is closed, and the intake of hot air is stopped. Here, the warm air sucked into the drying chamber 1 absorbs moisture from the leaf tobacco 16 and is discharged by the vacuum pump 5 while being replaced by hot air newly sucked in from the air supply valve 4. In the drying work of the leaf tobacco 16, which is performed by repeating the above series of steps, the air in the boiler room 2 is heated by the burner 6, and when the air supply valve 4 is closed, the air in the boiler room 2 is heated by the burner 6. The warm air is naturally discharged from the damper 12, and the air pressure inside the boiler room 2 is always kept constant. Further, the atmospheric pressure in the drying chamber 1 during depressurization is preferably about 0.9 atm at the minimum, and the warm air in the boiler chamber 2 is preferably about 38°C to 70°C. Further, the exhaust valve 3 and the air supply valve 4 are opened and closed manually when the vacuum pump 5 is not operating in a normal drying room, and when the vacuum pump 5 is operating, the exhaust valve 3 is closed. , air supply valve 4
is opened and closed by the pressure difference between the drying chamber 1 and the boiler chamber 2 as described above.

Next, the leaf tobacco 1 is transferred to the drying device according to this embodiment.
The storage means No. 6 will be explained.

To store the leaf tobacco 16, first, open the opening/closing door 11 of the drying chamber 1, and store the stalks of the leaf tobacco 16 from the back of the porous floor plate 10 in the drying chamber 1 at right angles to the porous floor plate 10. . When a certain amount of leaf tobacco has been stored in this way, a sorting rod 8 is installed between the guide frames 7 to divide the tobacco into sections, and at the same time, the spacing frame 9 is hung horizontally to divide the tobacco into square blocks.This process is repeated until all the leaf tobacco is stored. 16 is accommodated in the drying chamber 1, so that warm air is easily distributed and filled in the drying chamber 1 evenly, and then the opening/closing door 11 is sealed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As mentioned above, in the method of the present invention, the method of supplying hot air is suction rather than forced air blowing, so the hot air is evenly distributed and filled in the drying chamber, preventing uneven drying, and relatively low-temperature hot air. By using it efficiently, it is possible to prevent deterioration in aroma and taste, and to obtain productivity equal to or higher than conventional methods.

Further, in the method of the present invention, the temperature and humidity are forcibly discharged, so that the efficiency of moisture discharge can be significantly increased compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing an embodiment of the leaf tobacco drying device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the drying device shown in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a drying state in which leaf tobacco is accommodated. FIG. 4 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing the apparatus, FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a main part showing a method of storing leaf tobacco in the drying chamber, and FIGS. 5 to 7 are explanatory views showing auxiliary tools used when storing leaf tobacco. 1: Drying room, 2: Boiler room, 3: Exhaust valve, 4:
Air supply valve, 5: Vacuum pump, 6: Burner, 16:
Leaf tobacco.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 Connecting a pressure reduction mechanism and a heating mechanism to the drying chamber, and activating the pressure reduction mechanism when necessary to discharge the air in the drying chamber to make the air pressure in the chamber negative, and keep the air pressure in the drying chamber at a predetermined level. When the pressure drops to , warm air heated by the heating mechanism is sucked into the drying chamber, and after raising the pressure inside the drying chamber to a certain level, the hot air intake is stopped to reduce the temperature and humidity inside the drying chamber. Drying is carried out by repeating a series of steps in which the temperature and humidity in the drying room are discharged until the pressure drops to a predetermined pressure while replacing it with warm air, the pressure in the room is reduced, and the process of lowering the humidity of the air in parallel while performing vacuum drying. A method for drying leaf tobacco, shiitake mushrooms, etc., characterized by: