Alternatives to cellulose acetate?

For decades, the global tobacco industry has primarily used acetate tow to manufacture cigarette filters. Despite the advantages of good filtering performance and strong plasticity, the filter tip made of cellulose acetate tow also has the disadvantage of poor degradability. The development of alternative filter materials has become a difficult problem that the tobacco industry has been hoping to overcome in recent years. At present, some filter research and development companies and individuals have made unremitting efforts to develop cigarette filter materials with excellent filtration performance and rapid degradation. Let's find out together.

 

• Polylactic acid: an environmentally friendly material

Polylactic acid (PLA), a renewable resource that can be extracted from corn, cassava, sugarcane, and sugar beet, can be decomposed quickly in a short period of time under almost any environmental conditions, but it has not yet been commercialized on a large scale chemical production. The real reason for the slow sales is high prices: PLA tow is at least twice as expensive as acetate tow.

 

• Polypropylene: a price-friendly material

Polypropylene, referred to as PP, is a polymer formed by the addition polymerization of propylene. It is a thermoplastic synthetic resin with excellent performance. It is colorless, odorless, non-toxic, and is a translucent solid substance.

After more than 30 years of research and development of polypropylene tow in various countries, the feasibility of polypropylene tow as a filter material for cigarettes has been proved. On the one hand, the physical and chemical properties of polypropylene tow are basically similar to those of diacetate tow, and are easily accepted by consumers; on the other hand, the production cost and sales price of polypropylene tow are much lower than those of diacetate tow, so it is easy to Accepted by cigarette companies. Therefore, polypropylene tow for cigarettes has developed rapidly in recent years.