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5,267,455 12 LIQUID/SUPERCRITICAL CARBON DIOXIDE DRY CLEANING SYSTEM FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention generally relates to an energy efficient dry cleaning system that employs supercritical carbon dioxide and that provides improved cleaning with de moval of a variety of contaminants without the neces sityofutilizingdifferentsolvents. However,theproblemsofrelativelyslowprocessing, limited solvent power, and redeposition have seriously hindered the usefulness of carbon dioxide cleaning methods. Another particularly serious obstacle to commercial acceptabilityofdensegascleaningisthefactthatwhen certain solid materials, such as polyester buttons on creasedredepositionofcontaminants,andreducesdam l0 fabricsorpolymerparts,areremovedfromadensegas age to polymer substrates. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Cleaningcontaminantsfrommetal,machinery,preci sionparts,andtextiles(drycleaning)usinghydrocarbon15 consumerclothingandelectronicparts. and halogenated solvents has been practiced for many years. Traditional dry cleaning machines operate typi cally as follows: a soiled garment is placed into a cylin drical “basket” inside a cleaning chamber which isthen sealed.A non-polarhydrocarbonsolventispumped into the chamber. The garment and solvent are mixed together by rotating the basket for the purpose of dis solving the soils and stains from the garment into the solvent, while the solvent is continuously ?ltered and recirculatedinthechamber.Afterthecleaningcycle,25 videacleaningsystemwithreducedredepositionof most of the solvent is removed, ?ltered, and reused. Recently the environmental, health, and cost risks contaminants, that is adaptable to the incorporation of activecleaningmaterialsthatarenotnecessarilysoluble in the non-polar solvent. associated with this practice has become obvious Car bon dioxide holds potential advantages among other non-polarsolventsforthistypeofcleaning.Itavoids30 thatemploysarotatableinnerdrumdesignedtohold many of the environmental, health, hazard, and cost problems associated with more common solvents. the substrate during cleaning and a system in which the cleaning?uidisrecycled. In one aspect of the present invention, a system is provided for cleaning contaminated substrates. The removingorganicandinorganiccontaminantsfromthe35 systemincludesascalablecleaningvesselcontaininga Liquid/supercritical ?uid carbon dioxide has been suggested as an alternative to halocarbon solvents in surfaces of metal parts and in cleaning fabrics. For ex ample, NASA Technical Brief MFA-296ll entitled “Cleaning With Supercritical CO1” (Mar. 1979) dis cusses removal of oil and carbon tetrachloride residues frommetal.Inaddition,Maffei,US. Pat.No.4,012,194, issuedMar. 15,1977,describesadrycleaningsystemin which chilled liquid carbon dioxide isused to extract soils adhered to garments. e rotatable drum adapted for holding the substrate, a cleaning ?uid storage vessel, and a gas vaporizer vessel for recycling used cleaning ?uid. The drum ismagneti cally coupled to an electric motor so that it can be rotated during the cleaning process. The inventive system isparticularly suited for auto mation so that the system can be regulated by a micro processor. Moreover, automation permits increased energy ef?ciency as the heating and cooling effect asso Suchmethodssuggestedforcleaningfabricswitha45 ciatedwithCO2gascondensationandexpansioncanbe dense gas such as carbon dioxide have tended to be restricted in usefulness because they have been based on standard extraction processes where “clean” dense gas is pumped into a chamber containing the substrate and “dirty” dense gas is drained. This dilution process se verely restricts the cleaning efficiency, which isneeded forquickprocessing. Another problem with attempts to use carbon dioxide in cleaning is the fact that the solvent power of dense carbon dioxide isnot high compared to ordinary liquid 55 solvents. Thus, there have been attempts to overcome this solvent limitation. . German Patent Application 3904514, published Aug. 23, 1990, describes a process in which supercritical ?uid or?uidmixture,whichincludespolarcleaningpromot 60 cleaning?uidisshownschematicallyinFIG.1.The ers and surfactants, may be practiced for the cleaning or washing of clothing and textiles. vessel 10, preferably a rotatable drum, the gas vaporizer PCT/US89/04674,publishedJun.14,1990,describes vessel11,andthestoragevessel12,allofwhichare a process for removing two or more contaminants by interconnected. The cleaning vessel, where soiled sub contacting the contaminated substrate with a dense 65 strates (e.g. clothing) are received and placed into phase gas where the phase is then shifted between the liquid state and the supercritical state by varying the temperature. The phase shifting is said to provide re contact with the cleaning ?uid is also referred to as an autoclave As will be described further below, much of the CO2 cleaning ?uid isrecycled in this system. treatment they are liable to shatter or to be severely misshapened. This problem of surface blistering and cracking for buttons or other solids has prevented the commercial utilization of carbon dioxide cleaning for SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a cleaning system in which an environmen tally safe non-polar solvent such as densi?ed carbon dioxide can be used for rapid and efficient cleaning, with decreased damage to solid components such as buttons and increased performance. It is another object of the present invention to pro Yet another object is to provide a cleaning system exploited to heat and cool various parts of the system. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic ?ow sheet showing the system of the invention. FIG. 2isacross-sectionalviewofthecleaningvessel. FIG. 3 graphically illustrates temperature and pres sure conditions within a hatched area in which cleaning is preferably carried out for reduced button damage. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A cleaningsystemthatcanuseasubstantiallynon polar ?uid such as densi?ed carbon dioxide (CO2) as the system generally comprises three vessels, the cleaningPDF Image | SUPERCRITICALCARBON DIOXIDE DRY CLEANING SYSTEM
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