2006 Volume 32 Issue 5 Pages 435-441
We previously showed that some glycol-ether aqueous solutions possess unique characteristics of phase-transition and oil solubility. Utilizing these characteristics, we have developed and reported a unique cleaning process with non-distilled type regeneration of detergent liquid and non-waste water, where 35 wt% GE (diethylene-glycol-diethyl-ether) aqueous solution was used as detergent liquid. In this study we constructed a more powerful and effective cleaning process adopting 90 wt% GE aqueous solution as detergent liquid, by means of a cascade-wise sequence of three different states, in which different phases and solubilities are realized respectively. Furthermore, we confirmed that the time required to convert between the homogeneous phase and two phases and to separate oily dirt from oil-resolved homogeneous detergent liquid is within the time allowed in practice.
