Uniqema, ICI's speciality chemical division, and Germany's Linde Gas Group, have developed Washpoint, a carbon dioxide-based solvent system claimed to offer greater cleaning power than standard liquid carbon dioxide solvents.
Jan Hamrefors, general manager of the Washpoint programme at Linde Gas, said the two companies have an ongoing agreement to work jointly to develop densified CO2 cleaning technology and this was the first product to result.
Washpoint consists of a liquid CO2 solution with cleaning booster for improved performance plus an injection system.
Marketing will be handled by Linde and Mr Hamrefors says that the product will be targeted at the USA, where there about 40 to 50 CO2 installations, and Europe, which at present only has a handful of machines.
He told LCN that although this was clearly a niche product as yet, the market would be broadened in the future. Linde was working alongside machine manufacturers including Electrolux, Alliance, CoolClean and SailStar to develop suitable hardware.
