Apparatus and method for controlling the use of carbon dioxide in dry

Abstract

An apparatus and method for controlling the use of carbon dioxide in drying cleaning clothes, garments and other fabrics is disclosed and claimed. The components of the invention include a distillation vessel, a compressor, a warm-up vessel, a cleaning chamber, a condenser, and a carbon dioxide storage tank. A programmable logic controller is utilized to control the apparatus. Several modes of use are disclosed. One mode, the reclaim mode, enables the efficient operation of the apparatus. As the name implies the reclaim mode recovers most of the carbon dioxide gas remaining in the cleaning chamber is removed therefrom. There are three steps of the reclaim mode: in the first steps the compressor pumps the gaseous carbon dioxide in two parallel stages from the cleaning chamber to the condenser where heat is removed therefrom and it is liquified; in the second step the compressor pumps the gaseous carbon dioxide through the warm-up vessel and back to the cleaning chamber thus preventing the formation of solid carbon dioxide (dry ice) on the clothes, garments or fabrics in the cleaning chamber; and, in the third step two stages of compression are utilized to remove as much of the gaseous carbon dioxide as possible from the cleaning chamber and pump it to the condenser. The carbon dioxide used in the apparatus is cleaned, in part, by a distillation vessel. Heated thermocouples are used to detect the level of liquid carbon dioxide in the storage tank and the distillation vessel.