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Pressing issue: Scientists find way to detox dry cleaning
October 29, 1996
Web posted at: 3:30 p.m. ESTIn this story:
(CNN) -- Scientists known for their work on nuclear weapons may have come up with a better way to dry-clean clothes. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico -- looking for a way to replace hazardous cleaning solvents used in the nuclear weapons industry -- found that clothes come clean with liquid carbon dioxide.
(3 sec./539K QuickTime movie)
The discovery, which may be marketed by next June, might eventually replace perchloroethylene, or "perc," a potent solvent and possible carcinogen that's been the mainstay of the dry cleaning business for 60 years.
It works
Below 88 degrees Fahrenheit, at less than a thousand pounds of pressure, carbon dioxide gas (CO-2) becomes a liquid. Using time-lapse photography, Los Alamos scientists are able to show its effectiveness as a cleaning agent. Over a 25- to 30-minute period under laboratory-controlled conditions, the reusable clear liquid lifts stains from fabric.
Real-world dirt is no problem, either, according to Carl Townsend of Global Technologies, a company created to market such laboratory discoveries. Taking a blouse stained with a white-colored anti-perspirant, Townsend coats the stain with a pre-wash spray. Elsewhere on the blouse he adds vegetable oil. (24 sec./544K AIFF or WAV sound)
Both stains -- even the untreated vegetable oil -- are removed with the liquid carbon dioxide cleaning process.
"It's environmentally friendly," says Los Alamos researcher Craig Taylor, "because CO-2 doesn't react with anything."
Better than bleach
Another advantage: different fabrics, including whites and colored garments, can be cleaned at the same time because the CO-2 does not act as a color-removing bleach.
CO-2 has potential, says William Fisher of the International Fabricare Institute, a trade organization for the dry cleaning industry. But he cautions that more research is needed to find out what fabrics need pre-treatment before they can be cleaned the liquid carbon dioxide way.
Related sites:
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- Global Technologies
- International Fabricare Institute
- Environmental Technology Initiative
- Carbon dioxide dry cleaning
- Cleaning of common fabrics
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