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Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

(OP)
Hi everyone,

I'm currently looking for alternative degreasing technologies for our current TCE vapor degreaser. We are currently using this equipment to clean aero-engine parts (magnesium, stainless steel and aluminum) from light oils (machining cooling oils and fluorescent penetrant dyes used for DPI) as our prep prior plasma spray deposition.

I was wondering if anyone has gone through this path already and might be able to point me towards the right direction.

From what I've seen so far it's either a choice of sticking to the chlorinated solvents (which some might be phased out as well in the next 5-10yrs) or going towards a aqueous cleaning systems (that may or may not be able to effectively clean the parts).We are hoping we can go for the aqueous cleaning systems any inputs?

Cheers,
F.
 

RE: Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

Another technology uses supercritical CO2 (carbon dioxide), at least I know it is being used for dry-cleaning of clothes, and thought it had been developed for part cleaning also.  A bit of google time should help you see if somebody has a commercial system for sale.

see this article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercritical_carbon_dioxide

RE: Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

I just did a feasibility study on a CO2 sequestrtation project and found that super critical CO2 is the super solvent of the future.  When I looked at compressing it, I found that it is such a good cleaner that it will clean the lubricating oil from a recip compressor cylinder.  Really the only drawback I found to using this stuff as a solvent is that it has to be above 87.8F and 1070 psia--you may not want your basic dry cleaner to be messing with that much pressure, but in an industrial application the folks should be trainable.

David

RE: Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

here is a different one I witnessed at a pilot plant that was cool!!!  Propane!  Its a take off of dewaxing lube oils as published and use regualy, put has beed adapted to remove oils from seeds on oil from ROCKS, like tar sands.

RE: Vapor Degreaser - Trichloroethylene alternatives

(OP)
Thanks you very much for all the inputs

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