Handbook of Solvents - George Wypych - ChemTech - Ventech!

21.4 Alternative cleaning technologies 1505
smaller part, comprising articles requiring more complicated treatment, will be treated with
solvent.
Not ideal, but nevertheless possible, is a situation where an attractive plant location
uses the LANADOL process exclusively, should local conditions prohibit use of solvent
equipment or permit it only with great difficulty. In this case, with a well equipped finishing
department and qualified operators, a drycleaner’s complete service range is feasible, with
possibly just very few exceptions.
21.4.3 FUTURE
Dry cleaning with TCR is at the end of its development. HCS dry cleaning at present is in a
phase of consolidation. Wet cleaning is in its early beginnings and LCD cleaning isn’t in
practice yet.
TCE will probably soon be rendered a “knock out property” by its environmental behavior.
Also the operating costs will increase rapidly because of more specific regulations
with regard to storage and handling as well as to the waste removal of TCE. Today 80% of
dry cleaning is done in TCE. Possibly more than 90% of existing TCE machines will be replaced
by other systems within the next 10 years.
HCS has no probable “knock out property”. Possible new developments may reduce
the solvent consumption and increase the cleaning results. Because of low operating costs
HCS will be the most important replacement for perc machines in the near future.
Wet Cleaning has no “knock out property”. New developments will reduce the garment
risks, the finishing work and the operating speed. Minimizing the water consumption
is already solved technically though these technologies have not been put to use due to the
low cost availability of water resources. New services to customers and the revitalization of
professional textile care will move on with Wet Cleaning. Most of the new operations will
be installed with wet cleaning equipment only or with a combination of wet- and HCS
cleaning.
LCD bears the risk of three “knock out properties”: reliability, cleaning result, and
garment damage. In order to solve the problems connected with the removal of polar “soiling”
and the prevention against greying on synthetic fibers and shrinking of natural fibers, a
lot of basic research has to be done. Additionally a lot of developmental work has to be done
in order to make LCD economically competitive to existing processes. That means not only
a reduction of LCD consumption without increasing the process time and the use of energy,
but also build up of a simple distribution of this solvent.