Nicotine Extraction: The Industrial Process from Tobacco Raw Material to Purified Nicotine
Nicotine is one of the most characteristic naturally occurring alkaloids in tobacco and an important raw material in tobacco processing, tobacco by-product utilization, and parts of the next-generation tobacco-product value chain. Tobacco leaves, stems, dust, fragments, and certain processing by-products may all contain recoverable nicotine. Through suitable extraction, separation, and purification processes, nicotine can be recovered and subsequently prepared at different concentrations or purity levels according to its intended downstream use. Industrial nicotine extraction is therefore far more than simply “washing nicotine out of tobacco.” It is a systems-engineering process involving raw-material pretreatment, extraction, solid–liquid separation, concentration, purification, and refining.
