China: Guizhou Provincial Corporation Develops New Cut Tobacco Expansion Medium

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 12/06/2010

Guizhou Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation in southwest China's tobacco-producing Guizhou Province has developed a new cut tobacco expansion medium, known as the "New Type of Environment-Friendly Zero Ozone Depleting Potential Cut Tobacco Expansion Medium", which has been proven applicable and successful in cigarette production by the corporation. On November 20, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) - the regulator of China's tobacco indsutry - held a meeting in Guizhou's provincial capital city of Guiyang to technically appraise the "project of development of environment-friendly cut tobacco expansion media and research of applied technologies to this effect", with the participation of relevant persons from the STMA, Guizhou Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation and more than a dozen cooperation partners involved in the project. Since the start of its execution in June 2003, the "project of development of environment-friendly cut tobacco expansion media and research of applied technologies to this effect" has undergone experiments on feasibility of laboratory principles, experiments on theoretical proof of feasibility of the relevant technologies, and the processes of designing, processing, installation, debugging, trial production, etc. A set of sample equipment was put into operation on July 26, 2009. By October 31, 2010, the equipment had turned out 1.2 million kilograms of expanded cut tobacco, which has been used to produce some cigarette products by Guizhou Provincial China Tobacco Industry Corporation. At the meeting to technically appraise the project, a panel of experts heard reports on the work of executing the project, reports on the new technology developed, reports on industrial application of the new technology and reports on analysis of socioeconomic efficiency of the new technology, checked the relevant data, and conducted on-site tests. Afterwards, the panel of experts unanimously agreed that the project has met the goals of research prescribed by the contract, is up to the requirement of the relevant technical targets, and has reached the domestic advanced level. The experts agreed that the "New Type of Environment-Friendly Zero Ozone Depleting Potential Cut Tobacco Expansion Medium" - which has been patented in China - has contributed to filling a gap of technology in China. As a result, they unanimously agreed to have the project passed. Enditem