Description

As noted by Archer, hydrocarbon solvents are compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen atoms. A large number of both aliphatic and aromatic solvent blends are produced by various petrochemical companies from the distillation refining of petroleum stock, the alkylation of certain distillation products, and the selective catalytic hydrogenation of hydrocarbon fractions. The hydrogenation process eliminates unwanted components from the hydrocarbons and also converts undesirable fractions into useful hydrocarbons. Typical reactions include the removal of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur containing compounds and the conversion of acetylene and aromatic and olefin hydrocarbons into saturated normal paraffins, isoparaffins, and cycloparaffins. These petroleum solvents find wide use in the chemical industry and many other industrial application uses that require solvents. The solvents are used both as active solvents to dissolve an ingredient and as inexpensive diluents for coatings and paints.
Several grades of dearomatized aliphatic hydrocarbon solvents find use in industrial and institutional cleaning products. Synthetically produced isoparaffin (branched chain) and normal paraffin (straight chain) blends also find use in cleaning formulations. These paraffinic solvents are often blended with oxygenated and other solvents for effective cleaning performance. The hydrocarbon solvents offer effective cleaning power, excellent wetting ability, low corrosion, low toxicity, and low odor. A wide range of evaporation rates offers formulation flexibility. Industrial soils removed by cleaners containing the hydrocarbon solvents include petroleum- and aqueous-based metal working fluids, buffing and polishing compounds, mold-release agents, acrylic adhesives, lubricating greases, and waxes. Many of the cleaning operations may also require the use of agitation,immersion spraying, ultrasonic energy, or heat (with the proper safety features in place).