National Clothesline

It wouldn’t be a Clean Show without a lot of talk about cleaning, and you can’t clean without water or some kind of solvent — or maybe thousands of tiny plastic chips.

For Clean ’09 attendees, the solvent talk was extensive with two separate programs dedicated to the status of cleaning solvents in the industry.

Then there were on-floor demonstrations of a new technology that aims to replace most of the water used in laundry washing with polymer beads. The little plastic chips are added to the wash wheel with a small amount of water where they attract and absorb dirt during the wash cycle. In a ‘proof-of-concept” machine on the show floor, the dirt-laden beads were dumped to an outer wheel before removing the garments.

The technology, introduced in New Orleans by GreenEarth Cleaning, is still in the development stage. GreenEarth, in partnership with Xeros, Ltd., the UK developer, said the technology could be available for commercial laundries by late next year; Green-Earth will be the exclusive licensor for Xeros to retail drycleaners in North America.

Perhaps a working machine will be on the floor of Clean ’11 in Las Vegas. In the meantime, cleaners have a number of other options to sort through as they plan for a future that may not include perc.

At the Clean Show two years ago in Las Vegas, the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute presented a White Paper on solvents which included the following recommendation:

“In light of the regulatory/political issues and media scrutiny of perc, DLI believes that a member considering an investment in a new drycleaning system would be best advised to first consider alternative solvents, and to evaluate them against the difficulties of using perc today.”

At this year’s show, DLI moved that discussion along with “The Great Solvent Debate” in which speakers on behalf of hydrocarbon, GreenEarth, DrySolv, CO2 and Solvair answered questions that cleaners converting from perc might have before making the changeover.

Selected to represent each of the solvents were Jim Schreiner of Adco for hydrocarbon, Tim Maxwell of GreenEarth, Ray Roccon for DrySolv, Jon Wikstrom of Cool Clean for CO2 and L. Ross Beard of Solvair.

Panel moderator Carol Memberg of National Clothesline opened the discussion by asking each of the representatives what a switch from perc would entail in terms of new methods, training and support.

Schreiner and Maxwell said equipment and chemical suppliers can provide the tools and training needed for using hydrocarbon and GreenEarth. Roccon said that DrySolv manufactures everything — the machine and chemical supplies in addition to the DrySolv. Perc cleaners would find a short learning curve in adapting to DrySolv, he said.

On the other hand, CO2 and Solvair are quite different from perc. Wikstrom said the high pressures under which CO2 operates are unlike anything in perc or hydrocarbon cleaning although they are not much different than systems that supply carbonated beverages for restaurants.

Beard said that Solvair provides support with a pre-installation team and the system is continuously monitored and connected to the Solvair tech support center so any issues can be addressed as soon as they arise.

Questioned about environmental safety and human exposure concerns and how “green” their solvents are, all of the panelists aid they believe their systems can be operated safely with no human health or environmental pollution problems.

Schreiner said that synthetic hydrocarbons have been tested extensively for toxicological, environmental and aquatic impacts and they are used widely in a variety of applications. He noted that there are many definitions of “organic” and “green.”

As a chemist, he said he would view hydrocarbons as organic because they contain carbon and hydrogen, but to consumers the term organic means natural, plant-based or animal based.

“Our product is not organic in that sense; it is a synthetic product made from petroleum.” Whether it can be considered “green” depends on the definition of green, he added, noting hydrocarbon solvents degrade in the environment to carbon dioxide and water.

Maxwell said that GreenEarth, like hydrocarbon, is used in a variety of products including personal care items. It is not subject to exposure limits under OSHA nor does EPA regulate any of its uses. An 18-month study by the California Air Resources Board concluded that there is no human health hazard from GreenEarth exposure, he added.

Roccon said that the National Toxicology program completed a two-year cancer study of n-propyl bromide, the basis of DrySolv, five years ago and the fact that the results haven’t been released leads him to believe that no concerns were found.

He said that DrySolv is listed by EPA as a VOC but he believes that it should not be and his company is seeking a VOC exemption. Compared to perc, hydrocarbon and GreenEarth, DrySolv uses less energy due to shorter cleaning and drying cycles and generates less hazardous waste.

“It is green by environmental standards and by energy use standards,” he said. “It is about as green as it gets.”

Beard said there has been confusion over which glycol ether is used in the Solvair system.

“This is a propylene glycol ether which is generally considered to be safe and environmentally friendly,” he said.

Beard added that he does not describe Solvair as organic because of confusion among consumers who think of organic in terms of food.

“The industry has gotten a black eye from cleaners who have promoted ‘organic cleaning,’” he said. Further, he added, that “as somebody who has spent years in court dealing with perc liability, we designed Solvair to ensure safe use for operator and to minimize liability issues.”

Wikstrom noted that the CO2 used in cleaning systems is recycled and does not constitute new emissions. At the same time, it is replacing other solvents that have VOCs or generate VOCs in their production. It’s low energy use and short cycle times make it a net positive environmentally.

Roccon was questioned from the audience about two cases in which plants that converted to DrySolv ran into problems. In one case, an operator became ill due to overexposure to solvent vapors. In another, a plant encountered problems with equipment corrosion.

In the first case, Roccon said the operator was running a perc plant by day and then working his own Drysolv plant at night, sleeping in the plant and wiping down the equipment with solvent-soaked rags. He became overexposed to solvent vapors and fell ill as a result.

“He wasn’t following the correct procedures,” Roccon said. The company has since discontinued the operator as a DrySolv user because he wouldn't follow those procedures.

In the second case, the operator was running three machines on one still and eventually the solvent went acidic in the still leading to corrosion and the door falling off.

“The solvent is not for everyone,” Roccon said. “If you have an old machine that is falling apart, this solvent is not going to fix it.“

Putting Drysolv into an old perc machine that should be retired can lead to problems, he said, adding that “we are being more selective about where the solvent is going.”

Another audience member asked the panelists to discuss any liabilities in using their solvent.

Roccon said that since DrySolv is stabilized, it can break down. “You must be aware of how the system is working and do preventative maintenance,” he said.

Schreiner noted that hydrocarbon solvent is combustible. “That doesn’t mean it will catch fire, but the potential is there,” he warned. “If you have proper equipment, you can operate safely.”

He also said that the solvent is lighter than water, unlike perc which is heavier. Thus water tends to hide and can become feeding ground for bacterial growth resulting in foul-smelling solvent. Proper maintenance is needed to control the water and avoid stinky solvent.

Maxwell noted that GreenEarth, like hydrocarbon, is combustible although with a somewhat higher flash-point, and can also have issues with water. But machine manufacturers have come a long way with sophisticated water separation systems, he said. It’s not just the solvent.

“All the solvents have pluses and minuses,” Schreiner said. “As you look at these options, you have to look at the compete package. It’s not just the solvent. It’s the entire package — solvent, equipment, detergent and cycles.

“If you are running properly you will turn out a quality product. If you don’t, you will turn out dirty clothes.”

Perc was a non-player on the DLI solvent panel, but that is far from the case in the industry, both in the United States and world-wide.

At a Clean ’09 seminar sponsored by the International Committee of Textile Care (known by the acronym CINET), Dr. Henk Goojier of the Netherlands-based Textile Knowledge Center said that perc still has by far the largest market share in drycleaning around the world.

In Europe and North America, perc holds a decided advantage in market share, ranging from two-thirds to more than 90 percent by country. Only in Japan, which historically has been a hydrocarbon market, is perc in the minority.

Nonetheless, Goojier said perc’s share is expected to decline as regulatory pressures increase. In the short term he sees hydrocarbon as the most common replacement for perc.

The long-term could favor wetcleaning as the market share of dryclean-only garments is expected to decrease. He believes wetcleaning could become a universal cleaning technology.

Boosting the prospects of wetcleaning is the introduction of a professional wetcleaning care label along with developments in wetcleaning technology, he said.

A combination of wetcleaning and solvent cleaning provides the best of both worlds, he said.

In particular, he said, a combination of wetcleaning and CO2 would provide a system in which no volatile organic solvents are involved.