Abstract: Aiming at the problems of high breakage and poor processing durability of expanded cut tobacco by traditional CO₂ expanded cut tobacco processing,a steaming preconditioning discharger was added next to the expansion tower,which moistened the tobacco as it left the tower.Steam was injected into the compartments in the airlock discharger through uniformly distributed nozzles,to allow the tobacco entering into the airlock being evenly humidified and loosed.The results of application showed that after improvement,the percentage of long strands and cut tobacco yield increased by 1.5 and 0.75 percentage points,respectively.Water stained tobacco was avoided in the process of humidifying.The processing durability of expanded cut tobacco was effectively improved,while the breakage of cut tobacco was reduced.