Solvent Recovery: Sustainable Solution or Smokescreen?
There is No Safe Amount of Cleaning Solvents
The coatings industry is waking up to the harmful impact of solvents, as well as the costs that come from managing the risks these hazardous chemicals present. Yet many companies are only going as far as implementing solvent recovery in order to minimise the volume of cleaning solvents they use, rather than eliminating these substances from their cleaning processes altogether.
On the surface, this looks like a positive step forward – especially given that the industry consumes almost half of the 20 million tonnes of solvents used globally each year. But dig a little deeper and we can see that solvent recovery isn’t much of a solution, because the use of any amount of cleaning solvents is unsafe, unsustainable, and unnecessary.
Here, we’ll examine whether the purported benefits of solvent recovery hold up to scrutiny, and explore why companies are much better off transitioning away from cleaning solvents altogether.
The Purported Benefits of Solvent Recovery – And Where They Fall Short
1. Reducing Hazardous Waste
Historically, solvents could only be used once by manufacturers before they were disposed of – either by being sent to landfill or incinerated, releasing harmful contaminants into the atmosphere. But with solvent recovery, waste is separated from the used solvent, so it can be reused. This closed-loop system enables companies to reduce their solvent waste by 80-85% and keep these hazardous chemicals out of the environment.
However, minimising the amount of new cleaning solvents needed does nothing to reduce the risks created by having them onsite at all. Any amount of these substances puts operators in danger of exposure to vapours and fumes, while their highly flammable and volatile nature means sites will still need ATEX-related zoning, and carry a risk of leaks contaminating the environment.
What’s more, solvent recovery itself is an inherently dangerous process. This is because it involves boiling solvents, taking them far past their flashpoint and significantly increasing explosion risk.
2. Cutting Emissions
Because they release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), solvents are incredibly emissions-intensive – throughout its lifecycle, one pound of solvent will have produced 9.8 pounds of greenhouse gases. Solvent recovery is therefore a way of mitigating this environmental impact by keeping these chemicals in circulation.
It’s important to note, however, that solvent recovery is an incredibly energy-hungry process. In the absence of a process that runs on renewable energy, this will at least partially offset the benefit of emissions reductions from solvent recovery.
3. Meeting Regulations
Moving away from single-use solvents can also help companies meet regulations and sustainability targets. It aligns with the EU’s Waste Framework Directive, under which the first priority when it comes to waste solvents should be recovery, and helps companies meet ESG goals by reducing Scope 1 emissions.
But solvent recovery isn’t future proof. As new regulation emerges – such as the Corporate Responsibility Sustainability Directive (CSRD) or the EU Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability – the continued use of these harmful chemicals will likely come under much heavier scrutiny, with any form of solvent use becoming unjustifiable in the face of safer alternatives. Businesses that don’t take steps to move away from these substances will be vulnerable to financial penalties as well as reputational damage.
4. Cost Savings
The business case for solvent recovery revolves around the fact that manufacturers will no longer need to pay for vast amounts of new solvent, and will also save money on waste disposal. However, not all of the solvent can be recovered – only around 80-90% – so companies will still face the ongoing cost of buying and safely disposing of solvents.
More importantly, these short-term financial benefits obscure the other, hidden costs of using cleaning solvents. Managing the unnecessary risks and complexity attached to solvent usage, such as compliance with ATEX zoning regulations, comes at a price. Solvent-based cleaning is also inefficient, slowing output by as much as 250%, while a high-quality clean is not always guaranteed, further dragging up production costs.
Together, these costs associated with cleaning solvent use – too often taken for granted by manufacturers – reduce net profitability by as much as 10-15%.
Ambimization®: A Safer, Solvent-Free Alternative
It’s clear that the use of solvents in the cleaning process is wholly untenable, even taking into account attempts to mitigate its harms with solvent recovery. The only way for manufacturers to truly improve the safety of their sites and protect the wider environment is by removing solvents from the cleaning process altogether. But until now, there was no better alternative.
Because while solvent recovery promises environmental, safety, and cost benefits, it can’t deliver on these promises. Ambimization®, on the other hand, makes these claims a reality. Firstly, because it’s solvent free, Ambimization® doesn’t put your operators’ safety at risk, and removes the need for ATEX-related zoning. Low in VOCs, it has been proven to reduce emissions by over 80%, while the fluid used in Ambimization® can be reused up to 50 times, significantly reducing waste.
What’s more, cleaning with Ambimization® is more effective – reducing cleaning times from 45 minutes to 12 minutes per vessel. All of these features combine to create a solvent alternative that saves companies huge amounts of money by cutting out unnecessary costs and optimising production, all while vastly reducing their environmental impact.
Industry-Proven
Industry leaders like Jotun and Sherwin-Williams are already well on their way to transforming their core cleaning operations, eliminating cleaning solvents and adopting Ambimization®. It’s time to break our attachment to these harmful chemicals once and for all – companies that lag behind will be left behind.
Learn more about Ambimization® vs. Alternative cleaning methods ->