We need a substitute for MEK (methyl ethyl ketone)

1996

A. I don't do industrial painting for a living but have had experience through the years analyzing paints, as well as trying to strip them.

There are a number of ways to remove paint, depending upon what the paint is and what the paint is on.

Start with contacting the paint supplier and asking for answers. Some of the non-flammable solvents that would work the best are either restricted (1,1,1-trichloroethane) or carcinogenic (trichloroethylene, methylene chloride).

Others are flammable (acetone) or flammable AND carcinogenic (toluene), or flammable and otherwise toxic (butyl cellosolve).

There are the caustic type strippers based upon sodium hydroxide that don't dissolve, but actually chemically destroy the paint (saponification).

You can burn off the paint in a furnace, or use a molten salt bath to do the same thing.

Finally, you can blast off the paint using walnut shell media ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] or other media in a "sandblaster".

Good luck. No matter what route you follow, you end up with a potentially hazardous waste. Be sure to check with your local regulatory agencies before trying to get rid of the final cleanup byproducts.

Bill Vins
microwave & cable assemblies - Mesa (what a place-a), Arizona

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(1996)

Thanks, Bill --

That was a terrific response, both in its technical quality and in its implication that every possible approach has environmental and safety consequences.

Society today understandably wants to quickly address the downsides of using certain materials, but we are often unprepared both scientifically and philosophically to weigh the downsides of the substitute to determine whether it will improve things or make things worse :-)

Is air pollution worse than water pollution . . . is land pollution worse than pollution of the ocean . . . is a skin rash on two workers out of fifty worse or not as bad as 10 trout killed out of forty?

Hi Dave,

Bill has given us an excellent list of potential substitutes for MEK, and their characteristics -- but I'm sure you already see the difficulty of objectively saying which, if any, are "better" than MEK. I wish you well; it's a very tough job!

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey


January 9, 2014

A. We paint industrial coatings in a booth everyday and can understand your concerns. We've recently found that dry ice blasting is the best way to clean the booth, track, chains, pipes and lines.

It is safe with no blast media clean up as the dry ice evaporates on contact and does not create rust issues. The only clean up you have is the paint residue on the floor of your booth after blasting.

There was a recent episode of dry ice blasting on Modern Marvels. Check it out …

After using it in our paint system we are sold on it.

Ron Covelli
- Schofield, Wisconsin, USA