Tobacco Processing
NIR has long been used in the tobacco industry to analyze incoming tobacco leaf, in-process product, and finished product. Incoming tobacco leaf can be analyzed for moisture, total sugar, reducing sugar, nicotine, nitrates, and more for grading in order to pay farmers and for separating and binning the leaf.
In-process and finished tobacco can be analyzed for moisture, total sugar, reducing sugar, nicotine, menthol, flavoring, and many other properties to optimize the process.
The SpectraStar 2400 or SpectraStar 2500 systems are ideal for these measurements. The SpectraStar is a full scanning monochromator that scans the NIR region in 1nm steps. One scan from the SpectraStar yields over 1000 data points. This large amount of data allows for the development of very accurate calibrations that remain stable over time.
As opposed to low cost filter NIR instrumentation, which only has 3-10 data points, the SpectraStar can be used to accurately measure more challenging applications like sugars, nicotine, and flavorings. Also, calibrations developed on the SpectraStar are more stable, eliminating the “Bias Nightmare” where filter units have to be continuously biased to remain calibrated.
The TransStar software can be used to transfer and existing calibration databases from any brand NIR model. This eliminates the need for existing NIR uses to recreate their entire database, saving both time and money.