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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Demonstration of a liquid carbon dioxide process for cleaning metal parts. Final report, June 1995-June 1996

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:432719
The report gives results of a demonstration of liquid carbon dioxide (LCO2) as an alternative to chlorinated solvents for cleaning metal parts. It describes the LCO2 process, the parts tested, the contaminants removed, and results from preliminary laboratory testing and the on-site demonstration at the Air Logistics Center (ALC) at Robins Air Force Base (RAFB), Georgia. The process chosen to be replaced was vapor degreasing in 1,1,1-trichloroethane (TCA), a solvent that is ozone-depleting, a hazardous air pollutant (HAP), and one of the 17 chemicals on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 33/50 list of priority pollutants. Carbon dioxide (CO2) degreasing was chosen for demonstration as a potential alternative to TCA because it is noncombustible, nontoxic, listed on the EPA Significant New Alternatives program (SNAP) list of approved cleaning alternatives, and not ozone depleting.
Research Organization:
Research Triangle Inst., Durham, NC (United States)
OSTI ID:
432719
Report Number(s):
PB--97-121149/XAB; RTI--93U-5171-019; CNN: Grant EPA-R-818419
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English