Solvent recycling process

General Discussion
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Just thought I would post this here for users interested in seeing what the solvent recycling process is like.

This is on our Uniram solvent recycler.

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Thatā€™s pretty cool but it seems you could buy over 1300 litres of IPA (probably quite a bit more with bulk discount) just for the outlay of the machine, before running costs - how long does it take to process 20L of IPA? I guess it may make sense if an extremely heavy user?!

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For our setup it has paid itself off already, is more convenient to use, and is also better for the environment, so itā€™s win win all around. For other companies it might work out differently.

  • Because we have a really small space, we donā€™t have the space to store hundreds of liters of IPA, thus we donā€™t really get any significant bulk discounts. Because we run a Form 3 and Form 3L, we change IPA at least 3-4 times a year, and require 2x20L buckets of new IPA each time. Here in Vancouver, Canada, these go for around $200 CAD each (We use MG Chemicals 99.9% iso for electronics cleaning). Thatā€™s around $1600 per year just to swap out IPA.
  • We previously were being ā€œresponsibleā€ and paying a waste treatment facility to take the IPA, which also cost something like $50 per container, so this is another $200 per year
  • We then found out that most waste treatment facilities here donā€™t do any recycling, they just burn it which sounds terrible for the environment
  • We got a deal on the recycler and paid around $4000 CAD for it so it pays itself off in two years
  • I will say also that the added convenience of not having to mess around with solvent disposal, storage of large amounts of IPA and procurement of new IPA is pretty awesome. I do still need to buy new IPA once in a while to account for evaporation, but thatā€™s mostly due to the poor design of the smaller Form Wash stations
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