View Single Post
  #20  
Old 02-23-2010, 06:22 PM
sphelps's Avatar
sphelps sphelps is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Lyalta, East of Calgary
Posts: 4,777
sphelps is on a distinguished road
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by superduperwesman View Post
Prob have to use some solvent as mentioned, or some kinda flash tank. The alcohol should boil around 84 C but the oil would be much higher so you could prob separate them this way? Any reason why the parts washer can't run with warm-> hot alcohol?
Yeah fractional distillation would be the best way to reuse the alcohol but this is something I'd rather avoid. Our production staff are not the most careful people around and I don't mean to say they aren't smart but they have managed to do some pretty stupid things. The last thing I want is to add is highly flammable vapor into their routine, I'd much rather keep things simple and safe if possible. Also have to consider the cost of distilling, the energy required for the process is significant in comparison to the cost of the alcohol.

I don't want to heat up the alcohol in the washer either, this would not exactly be safe. I actually have a thermo switch installed which shuts the system down if the fluid gets too warm.

Last edited by sphelps; 02-23-2010 at 06:30 PM.
Reply With Quote