Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/622093
tobaccoasia 17 • Double your resource value • Use 100% expanded fine- cut for MYO and RYO • Untouchable product quality • Impex – pressure/vacuum technology • DIET - Dry Ice Expansion Technology AircoDIET has supplied more than 55 DIET plants worldwide, many of which have been turn-key. We continuously develop and refine the DIET process and our DIET plants have above 95% uptime with a dry yield better than 98.5% through the plant. www.aircodiet.com Over 100% tobacco expansion Reaching for the sky: Peter Majer- anowski, president of Tyton BioSci- ences, stands in a field of some of the tobacco bred for "energy tobacco" production. Tyton varieties grow taller than conventional varieties. A tractor mounted with a silage cutting header harvests tobacco for Tyton BioSci- ences in a field in N.C. "We leave enough of the plant that it can regenerate, and we harvest it again at the end of the season," he says. Initial Plantings in Virginia, NC For 2016, Tyton tobacco will be pro- cessed in the extractor in Danville, says Hartman. The contracting farmers will come mainly from that area. But the com- pany expects to expand across the tobac- co belt in the coming years and eventually take tobacco belt production into states where tobacco belt it has not been tra- ditionally grown. For now, the contract- ing farmers will most likely be current or former tobacco growers and the crop will be grown on farms on which tobacco has been produced. Tyton has developed its own variet- ies, derived from flue-cured breeding ma- terial. They will be planted on all Tyton farms. It would seem likely that this type of tobacco will appeal to growers who can amass comparatively large acreages. "A farmer could probably do this eco- nomically on a fairly small scale, but with mechanization the advantages will come to those planting on a very large scale," says Hartman. Tyton tobacco is high in sugar and oil and can simultaneously be used to produce both biofuel and other valuable green chemicals. Tyton BioEnergy Sys- tems has developed a unique extraction process that can "revolutionize the eco- nomics of the biofuel and green chemi- cal industries." Tyton's core business is producing sugars, oil, protein and bio- char from the energy tobacco grown by its contracting farmers. For more information, go to the Ty- ton website at www.tytonbio.com.