High Flash Solvent Recovery

Throughout the U.S. and around the world, a variety of industries are moving from conventional solvents (toluene, xylene, acetone, mineral spirits, for instance) to high flash solvents including dibasic and other esters, glycol ethers, terpenes (d-limonene isomers), etc. for health, safety, and environmental reasons. The use of high flash solvents however, presents several undesirable operating disadvantages. First, these materials are very expensive. Virgin high flash solvent prices typically range from $15 to >$30 per gallon versus <$5 per gallon for conventional solvents. Second, although the volume of solvent usage is large, it is highly dispersed, so that spent solvent disposal is expensive, ranging from $1 to >$5 per gallon. Additionally, the spent solvent can be contaminated with a wide range of hazardous materials, further complicating spent solvent disposal. The above disadvantages associated with the use of high flash solvents can be eliminated if the solvent can be recycled on-site to a near virgin quality for reuse.

Although solvent recycling could dramatically reduce these problems, conventional reclamation technologies, such as distillation and conventional filtration, suffer significant limitations in terms of technical viability, cost, and user friendliness. By comparison, MPT ceramic membrane technology overcomes all of these deficiencies as described in the table below. Numerous bench-top and field installations have confirmed the regeneration of spent high flash solvents to essentially virgin quality. Finally, cost savings are considerable and capital payback in less than two months has been demonstrated in actual commercial installations.

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