The Third Annual Statewide Future Trends in Alternative Cleaning Methods

While specializing in primarily aqueous and semi-aqueous cleaning systems to replace hazardous solvents, TURI’ s Surface Cleaning Laboratory must also offer environmentally-friendlier chemical substitutions where water-based technologies do not apply. Media blasting for parts cleaning and supercritical extraction for precision cleaning are two options that will be reviewed on an application-specific basis. The concerns of natural resource management in cleaning operations with regard to pollution shifting’ and the potential role of surfactants and enzymatic cleaners as hormone mimickers and endocrine disrupters will be briefly addressed. In addition, the efficiencies of various combinations of chemical cleaners cleaning equipment and process parameters is often fragmented knowledge. SCL’s database of Effective Test Conditions (ETC) hopes to bridge this gap in technical innovation and technology transfer. Actual examples of ETC usage will illustrate how the database makes the search for more sustainable cleaning practices faster and easier. Finally, the latest developments in cleaning regimes (Le., ionic liquids) and surface inspection and will be discussed. ABOUT THE PRESENTER Carole LeBlanc has been the Surface Cleaning Laboratory (SCL) Manager for the Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) at the University of Massachusetts Lowell since 1993. She holds baccalaureate degrees in biology and chemistry from Boston College and has several years of research experience in both industry and academia. She has authored many publications and presented at several conferences on the topics of surface cleaning and surface analysis. Ms. LeBlanc is currently a doctoral candidate in an International Programme at Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands for Cleaner Production, Cleaner Products, Industrial Ecology and Sustainability . Her thesis, “Finding Safer, Greener Chemical Solvents for Surface Cleaning: A proposed Tool to Support Environmental Decision-Making” hypothesizes that the development of a test daWmaterials information methodology will assist governments, companies, scientists and cleaning practitioners in the identification of more sustainable cleaning chemicals and processes. It will be available in the fall of 1999. She can be reached by phone (978) 934-3249, fax (987) 934-3050 or email: leblanchom@,aol.com