Food Oil (or the Like) as a Cleaning Solvent?

I am unsure of where you find yourself but there are environ type degreasers available.Need more info to assist

robert ferreiro

robert_sagoo@africaonline.co.ke

Most "dirts" are hydrocarbon based and soluble in sodium caseinate (soap). That's why soap works so well to clean things. Also why, when in the presence of calcium, which displaces sodium to form calcium caseinate doesn't work very well at all.

I'm assuming any organic solvent (as long as it isn't already saturated) should be able to dissolve hydrocarbons. The challenge you have left is after dissolving off the really nasty, sticky hydrocarbons with the cooking oil, what do you use to get rid of the cooking oil? Soap? Dish washing detergent?

There is a commercially available product called "De-Solv-It" based on orange oil that does a nice job on roofing cement and many other oils and greases. Not a panacea, though, as it attacks some plastics and rubbers. Try "food grade solvent" as a search term. Good luck.

Biodiesel

Use low viscosity oils. Some examples are orange oils, lemon oils (Limonene) and other unsaturated oils like Safflower or Canola. Murphy's Soap is vegetable oil based. These are all more or less water soluble. Most are good for food contact applications but do cost more than other solvents. Also, unsaturated oils tend to oxidize - turn rancid - so do rinse thoroughly after use.

Nexera canola oil has been bred to contain low amounts of oleic acids. Thus it has a very long shelf life and won't go rancid as quickly. I am not sure what cleaning properties it has, but it makes a good penetrating oil for lubrication.

As a retired supervisory veterinerian for the USDA the easiest way is to get a copy of UDSA'schemical handbook or phone your local meat & poultry inspection office and find out what chemicals are approved for use in food plants-guess what the food industry uses for their standard-that hand book

I think someone beat you to it with a product called 'orange magic` using citrus oils.

check www.geoenvirogroup.com for their super geo