Wiley H. Henson

Storage of Burley Tobacco in Bales and Bundles

ABSTRACT BALES and bundles of burley tobacco were stored for seven months from spring to fall. Leaves darkened during storage at all moisture levels and stalk positions with the exception of the bottom stalk position, which darkened only slightly. There was no difference in color change and dry weight loss between burley tobacco in bales and bundles. Normal and high moisture bales and bundles were often graded as unsound because of a deviant odor caused by bacterial activity. A bale weight loss of about 8% occurred at normal moisture with the loss being divided evenly between moisture and dry weight losses

Drying Rates of Intact Burley Tobacco Plant Components

ABSTRACT DRYING rates of the lamina, midrib, and stalk of intact burley tobacco plants were determined at temperatures and relative humidities of 16 °C, 70%; 24 °C, 70%; and 32 °C, 70% during test 1, at 16 °C, 51%; 24 °C, 70%; and 32 °C, 83% during test 2, and at 27 °C, 70%; 27 °C, 80%; and 27 °C, 90% during test 3. Air velocity was held constant at 4.6 m/min. The environmental conditions were designed to determine drying rates at constant humidity and varying temperature during test 1, at constant vapor pressure deficit and varying temperature during test 2 and at constant temperature and varying relative humidity during test 3. The results showed that the stalk is an important contributor of moisture to the environment during curing. The average time required for the lamina, midrib and stalk to lose half their moisture was 4.4, 8.7, and 38.3 days, respectively.

Diffusion of Moisture from Burley Tobacco Leaves During Curing

ABSTRACT THE whole leaf diffusion model, derived from the vapor diffusion equation, was shown to be applicable to the drying of burley leaves during the cure. The diffu-sion models accurately described the drying of whole burley leaves. The exponential model, which was used as a standard of comparison, was better at describing the drying of the separated leaf components, lamina and midrib, than were the diffusion models, but was very poor at describing the drying of whole leaves. The whole leaf diffusion model physically explained the transfer of moisture from the midrib to the lamina of the intact leaf by effectively increasing and reducing the modified diffu-sion coefficients of the midrib and lamina, respectively, compared with those of the separated lamina and midrib in which no moisture was transferred between these leaf components.

Moisture Measurement in Biologically Active Material —Green Burley Tobacco—

ABSTRACT LAMINA, and midrib portions of burley tobacco plants were dried by five different methods. From the drying data, two methods of dry weight estimation were investigated. Initial moisture fraction was found to be directly related to the vapor pressure deficit of the drying air with both methods of dry weight determination.

A Solar Energy System for Curing Burley Tobacco

ABSTRACT IN a solar collector-rock bed system for curing burley tobacco the insulated rock bed supplied enough heat to reduce the relative humidity of the air in the cur-ing chambers by 12 to 17 percent as compared to a con-ventional chamber that used no heat. The uninsulated rock bed reduced the relative humidity by 5 to 10 per-cent. At present prices, a solar collector rock bed system cannot economically compete with fossil fuel systems for curing stalk-cut butley tobacco. To be economically com-petitive, solar energy systems for the farm will probably need to be multi-purpose.

Environmental Requirements for Storage of Baled Burley Tobacco

ABSTRACT Moisture and heat migration within baled burley tobacco are reported. Storage time, storage environment, bale density and initial moisture content were investigated. It was concluded that baled tobacco in storage reacts much the same as piles of tied hands of tobacco. That is, those storage and handling conditions that have worked with tied hands of tobacco in the past will work for baled to-bacco. The lower the storage temperature and/or the lower the moisture content of the tobacco, the longer the tobacco can be safely stored.