Procedure for cleaning

Hi,
calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide are my worst cases and I need to develop a procedure for cleaning. But I am troubled, because they are only soluble in acids. Someone has had a case like that?
Regards,
Rejane

Dear Rejane,

there are a lot of acidic cleaners and detergents, but many of them form insoluble salts with calcium and magnesium. I would try gross mechanical cleaning with a neutral detergent followed by cleaning with an organic acid, preferably dilute acetic acid. Citric acid is an alternative with the advantage of being odorless, but the cleaning procedure has to be carried out at ambient temperature because calcium citrate is insoluble in hot water.

Best regards

Alfred

Dear Rejane

I am not sure if you have resolved your cleaning issue by this stage, but as Alfred has mentioned there are plenty of acidic cleaners on the market.

However, I would urge you to review the potential of using a product called ProKlenz TWO from STERIS. Not only is its formulation centred on organic acids, but it is totally biodegradable and therefore a green choice. Furthermore, it contains components that are EPA approved for derouging, so if you are seeing any discolouration of stainless steel surfaces (which would impair product quality/integrity), it may reverse these effects, too.

Hope this helps.
Cleanerman

[quote=rejanebravim]Hi,
calcium carbonate and magnesium hydroxide are my worst cases and I need to develop a procedure for cleaning. But I am troubled, because they are only soluble in acids.

Rejane[/quote]

Dear Mr. Rejane,
I do not think dissolving is must to get the residue below the acceptable level. Calcium Carbonate and Magnesium Hydroxide are not so much potent molecules and their acceptble level of cleaning is generally higher. Washing them by using detergent can be done for getting the acceptable level.

What I suggest you is to clean the products with jet of water and with detergents only if required as the acceptable level for these molecules are generally higher.

There are generally 4 variables for getting effective cleaning. They are Time, Temperature, Mechanics and Chemistry. You can increase or decrease any of the above to get the desired cleanliness. If still residue is above the acceptable level, then either increase the temperature of cleaning agent or mechanics i.e. pressure of water jet or scrubbing the equipments or chemistry i.e. concentration of detergent or switching to alternative detergent etc.

Be careful for using acids as they itself are a hazardous residue.