City of Burnaby Saves Road Painting Costs With Maratek Solvent Saver
Posted on
by
Colin Darcel
Like other municipal governments, The City of Burnaby is interested in both cost savings for road maintenance, and implementing whenever possible environmentally friendly solutions.
The City of Burnaby's road painting department is responsible for marking road pavements with traffic lines and symbols. They use a specially equipped truck to do the job, which sprays marking paint onto the surface of the road with pressurized air guns, followed by a coating of glass beads to make the lines reflective.
Air guns must be washed and flushed out with 'gun wash' solvent after use, so the City's maintenance department goes through drums of solvent.
At approximately $600 for a 55 gallon drum of Toluene, this was a considerable operational expense and was creating large volumes of liquid waste that needed to be transported for environmental handling and processing.
The City of Burnaby was looking for a better way. They wanted to save on solvent costs and create less waste by recycling their Toluene gun wash liquid.
The solution was to install a our Solvent Saver Batch 8 gallon solvent recycler to recover approximately 80% of their solvent.
The Solvent Saver uses batch solvent distillation methods, operating one cycle at a time. It is available in 8, 16, 31 and 55 gallon models. Polluted waste streams, like used solvents from paint gun wash, are recycled, creating a usable solvent to put back into your process. Depending on the liquid waste characteristics, you could realize up to 95% recovery.
No matter what type of solvent you're using, from acetones to white spirits, contaminated solvents can be recycled to their original form.
Maratek’s solvent recycling SSB models separate solvents using the proven process of distillation, as shown through the numbered illustration below.
- The waste solvent is fed into the distillation vessel.
- The distillation vessel is fitted with a jacket of thermal oil that is heated by one or more electric heaters which brings the waste solvent to its boiling point.
- Pure solvent vapors are then channeled to an air cooled condenser, where it cools into its liquid form.
- The liquid is then directed to the clean solvent collection drums, where it can be re- used.
The City of Burnaby selected Maratek’s solvent recycling equipment and have recycled over 200 gallons. They are continuing to save money by re-using recycled solvent instead of buying new quantities. The City saves on average $480 per drum of Toluene used in their road painting department, plus save an additional $100 per drum because they don't have to ship the waste to a remote facility.
“Maratek’s unit has worked really well. We have been using it to recycle toluene from road paints, but most surprising of all – we can’t believe how quiet it is.”
- Mike Demeda, Road Painting Dept. City of Burnaby
Click here to read the case study, "City of Burnaby, Road Painting Dept." or contact us to find out more about the Solvent Saver SSB or other recycling solutions.
We're Specialists in Recycling and Disposing of Liquid Waste
If you believe your waste stream is out of the ordinary, there is no need to worry. Maratek Environmental provides laboratory testing to determine the best solution for handling your waste stream.
Recycling solutions may provide you with re-usable liquids saving your business substantially on materials used in your processes.
If recycling is not an option we have the experience and equipment to safely handle all kinds of industrial and manufacturing liquid waste streams.
Contact us today and we'll be pleased to call you back and help you towards establishing a safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly solution for your liquid waste streams.