FAQ

Recycling waste solvents on-site is an environmentally sustainable way for you to save money. Instead of scheduling for the waste to be removed and recycled off-site, you can recycle it yourself whenever you desire. Recycling on-site will allow you to re-use your solvent over and over again – saving you from buying new solvent and disposing of the old.

The vacuum option enables the user to separate and recover chemicals that boil at high temperatures. With the vacuum, these chemicals will successfully separate at lower temperatures, reducing the required energy input.

Our Solvent Saver Batch systems can be filled by pouring your waste into the system vessel, or with an optional automatic fill pump. Our Solvent Saver Batch Premium and Continuous systems are equipment with automatic fill pumps by default. These pumps can fill from any container size you use.

Our Solvent Saver Batch systems use lining bags to hold the waste sludge remaining after a batch. These bags are removed by your operator. The Solvent Saver Batch Premium units can be tilted to pour out the sludge to a drum or a manual drain valve can be used to pour waste into a pail. Our Solvent Saver Continuous systems use automatic gravity fed discharge to a drum or tote.

For all systems, clean solvent exits the system during production to be collected in a container of your choice. When vacuum assistance is used with our Solvent Saver Batch systems, a vacuum tank is included to hold the clean solvent until the batch is finished.

We have designed our solvent recycling units to require little to no manual labor. The Batch recycling models generally require a little bit more manual labor than the continuous models, however, the larger models in the Solvent Saver Batch family include our unique tilting feature. This prevents the user from exerting any force when removing the waste bags – they will simply slide out as the unit tilts. There are also optional features that make the Solvent Saver models even easier to operate. For example, the autofill and automatic sludge discharge features require no bags, as the machine automatically turns on/off, pumps in waste solvent, and discharges the waste sludge. The scraper removes any sludge build-up inside the machine, allowing the unit to be extremely user-friendly and easy to operate.

We have a reliable and friendly service team that will help fix any problems that arise. The Solvent Saver Continuous models come with remote Ethernet monitoring, which allows us to remotely access the PLC tablet attached to your solvent saver. We can fix and change any software issues remotely, and any equipment issues in person.

Generally yes, however our units often produce dry residual waste instead of wet sludge, which can often be disposed of as regular landfill depending on the location’s regulatory agency.

Storage of hazardous materials is regulated under the Resource Conservation Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations, however solvent recycling is not regulated under RCRA, so you can operate our units without regulation. Some areas may require you notify the RCRA, but the process itself does not require regulation.

Our specialized line of chemical recycling equipment called the Solvent Saver Engineered (SSE) line. These models have custom engineered equipment to directly suit your solvent recycling needs. The Solvent Saver Batch (SSB) and Solvent Saver Continuous (SSC) models also have simple additional options that can help separate more difficult chemical mixtures.

We can successfully recycle water from solvents and alcohols such as glycol. The engineering team utilizes Aspen software technologies to map out the ideal recycling process for a given waste composition.

All Maratek Equipment is Metlab Certified for UL2208, UL698A and NFPA496 requiremets, as well as Class 1 Div 1 Group D explosion proof.

We are also CSA certified for being intrinsically safe and non-incendive for hazardous locations.

We are one of the only solvent equipment manufacturers to hold these certifications so always ask to see a copy of the certifications.

The Autofill option allows for completely continuous and automatic recycling. An additional pump is installed to transfer the waste solvent into the unit’s distillation vessel. This pumping process is both continuous and automatic, as it allows for the solvent to be pumped in, distilled, and finally removed from the unit. It is controlled by high level switches and fill sequence timers that are embedded within the software. These timers will ensure the unit is continuously feeding new waste solvent to replace the recycled solvent.

Batch recycling operates cycle by cycle, whereas continuous recycling will run for as long as it is scheduled for. The batch recycling models will recycle a given number of gallons over a cycle which is approximately the length of an eight hour working shift. Some facilities will choose to run multiple cycles per day, which ultimately doubles or triples their working volume. The batch units are generally smaller, more basic, and require a little bit more manual labor than the continuous models. The continuous models are larger, more automatic, and generally more expensive; however, they have the advantage of running for extended amounts of time since they self-clean and self-fill.

We recommend contacting us to determine the model/ size that would best suit your chemical waste.

Solvent recycling separates solvents using the proven process of distillation. The process is initiated by feeding the waste into the distillation vessel that is fitted with a heating jacket of thermal oil. The thermal oil is heated by one or more electric heaters which brings each individual component in 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. It is then directed to the clean solvent collection drums, where it can be reused.

No, solvent recycling generally requires little manual labor, existing workers should have no trouble operating it during their working shift. Even the less automated batch recycling units only require about ten minutes of time to load and unload each cycle, which is still very minimal.

The recovered solvent is chemically identical to the virgin solvent. We will recycle a sample of your waste solvent in our facility before you purchase or rent our equipment, to provide you with the exact purity of your recovered solvent. The recovered solvent is designed to be re-used by your facility so that you don’t have to purchase new virgin solvent.

We take safety very seriously and are always up-to-date on ensuring our units exceed all governing North American safety guidelines. The units are third party MET lab certified to be explosion-proof (Class I Division I Group D).

The systems are compact and explosion-proof certified; therefore, they can be placed in both hazardous and non-hazardous working areas, as long as local fire guidelines permit.

Nitrocellulose is a chemical compound that has the potential to create an exothermic reaction under certain reaction conditions. This means the compound may release very large amounts of heat. It is flammable, and can become unstable at high temperatures where it releases toxic fumes like Nitrogen Oxides and Carbon Monoxide. Knowing this, we have engineered an option for all models that makes them Nitrocellulose safe. This option includes features such as autocool, a scraper, a steep conical wall, a vacuum, and advanced temperature controls. These features will successfully and safely separate solvents that include Nitrocellulose.

Blanket wash is a very common solvent used in the printing industry, therefore we have  designed and engineered the Solvent Saver Printing (SSP) line with a specialized solvent – water separation device. Maratek’s SSP line has been an asset to many printing companies for over 40 years.

Vacuum pressure reduces the heat required to recover your solvent/alcohol which minimizes the amount of heat your oil is exposed to during processing.

Both OERS-SC and C product lines include automatic fill and clean ethanol/solvent discharge pumps which can connect with any container of your choice. Your oil can be discharged after each cycle. The OERS-SC product line has a manual drain valve under the vessel or can be pneumatically tilted to pour out the oil. The OERS-C product line uses automatic gravity discharge to a drum or tote.

We have a reliable and friendly service team that will help fix any problems that arise.  Call Maratek at 1 800 667 6272 or email service@maratek.com if you ever encounter any difficulties using our equipment.

All Maratek Equipment is Metlab Certified for UL2208, UL698A and NFPA496 requirements, as well as Class 1 Div 1 Group D explosion proof.

We are also CSA certified for being intrinsically safe and non-incendive for hazardous locations.

We are one of the only solvent equipment manufacturers to hold these certifications so always ask to see a copy of the certifications.

We take safety very seriously and are always up-to-date on ensuring our units exceed all governing North American safety guidelines. The units are third party MET lab certified to be explosion-proof (Class I Division I Group D).

The systems are compact and explosion-proof certified; therefore, they can be placed in both hazardous and non-hazardous working areas, as long as local fire guidelines permit.