Dry cleaning is necessary for certain garments which would be damaged by soap and water. But dry cleaning entails lots of nasty chemicals. Most garments to be dry cleaning do not have caked dirt and poop on them - these are fancy things, and usually just have some body odor.

Body oil and odor is composed of volatile substances: grease, fatty acids etc. I propose that instead of solvents, high heat and pressurized air be used to clean these garments. The jacket or dress would be put in a chamber which would be pressurized to many atmosphered, and heated to a high temperature - this may need to be determined for various fabrics / synthetics.

The volatiles would be driven off by the heat, and the pressurized air would act as a solvent to capture them. This hot air could then simply be exhausted out the roof, after some heat is recaptured for the next load using an exchange mechanism.

This setup would also do a fine job of baking up croissants.
-- bungston, Jul 21 2004

LG making a liquid carbon dioxide washing machine http://koreabizwire...ess-washing-machine
[xaviergisz, Dec 31 2021]

OR...use supercritical fluids (eg Carbon dioxide)
-- cevilthedevil, Jul 21 2004


Or just put it in the dryer.
-- ldischler, Jul 21 2004


[contracts] this thing would be perfect for your silk shirts. On account of the many thick layers of cologne. We would need to put up rails to keep ladies from jumping into the exhaust vent.
-- bungston, Jul 21 2004


The key would be how strong the micro air currents through and around the fabric would be, in this altered environment.
-- wjt, Dec 31 2021


If we've committed to the CO2 route, as those people in Korea clearly have, then maybe we could use this to improve the economics of Carbon Capture and Storage: here is the coal power station, and right next door is the dry cleaner; when the CO2 reaches its final destination down in the lithosphere, we will bury with it the tantalizing hint of [contracts]' cologne; a cologne that lingers even after [contracts]' annotation has been deleted.
-- pertinax, Dec 31 2021


so what was [contracts]'s remark?
-- pashute, May 30 2022


But the high temperatures are likely a problem with shaped/delicate fabrics that need dry cleaning. Why not pull a vacuum and the volatiles will boil off at Room temp?
-- bs0u0155, May 31 2022



random, halfbakery