Posted by Russ on Wednesday, July 11, 2001 at 10:50AM :
In Reply to: a better ( cheaper) degreaser posted by kieth ( up north ) on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 at 9:10PM :
The active chemical used in most commercial hot tanking operations is caustic soda (lye or sodium hydroxide). It won't harm carbon steel, but will certainly eat up aluminum and will also ruin galvanized metal (zinc coating will be eaten up too). I used to work in a soda ash mine and refinery that also made sodium hydroxide (caustic soda). We had a recycle pond full of weak caustic soda solution that had to be checked often. One of the workers used an aluminum boat to maneuver around the pond one day - he was lucky to get back to shore before the entire bottom of the boat disappeared.
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