Oil Spill Clean-up; Any chemists here?

[OldShooter]

A couple of decades ago when I was racing sports cars and had a detached garage, my reliable (but dangerous) recipe for oil spill clean up was to dump some oil-dry, add a pint or more of avgas, and push the soupy mess around with a broom. It worked like a champion and I never did burn the place down.

Fast forward to now: I have an attached garage and maybe a little more caution. I found this stuff:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0046O5YMA, which seems to be more or less the same concept. Some kind of white powder substitutes for the oil-dry and some kind of low-volatility (but unidentified) "distallate" solvent substitutes for the very volatile avgas. The distallate evaporates slowly, like overnight, but leaves no residue. But the product is $50/gallon! No pleasure to BTD on that

So -- I would like to mix up a cheaper brew. Oil-dry again and some kind of less-dangerous solvent that still evaporates completely.

Eoes anyone with a chemistry background have any suggestions for a safer but inexpensive solvent?

 

[njhowie]

Baking soda and vinegar was the first thing that came to mind as it has many uses. I searched a little and came upon this which has various alternatives. I will certainly be needing to do this myself, so will be curious as to how you do yours and the results.

https://www.fixautousa.com/blog/get-rid-of-oil-stains-on-driveway/

 

[latexman]

Take a look at the MSDS for this product. It’s about as safe as you can get for a solvent/cleaner. It’s moderately alkaline, that’s why it got a Health rating of 1. Use rubber gloves and don’t get it in your eyes.

 

[MC Rider]

Simple Green?


My background in chemistry is dropping the class before the first big test as I realized I could never catch up to the class, and was bound to fail if I did not drop it. So, YMMV with my advice.

 

[aja8888]

Take a look at the MSDS for this product. It’s about as safe as you can get for a solvent/cleaner. It’s moderately alkaline, that’s why it got a Health rating of 1. Use rubber gloves and don’t get it in your eyes

Contains (From the MSDS):

Orange Terpenes

Orange Terpenes (d-limonene) is a 100% bio-based product produced by high vacuum fractional distillation of orange oils. By the nature of the manufacturing method, odor, purity, moisture, and colorcan be carefully controlled yielding a consistent product.

Orange Terpenes is considered food grade and finds use in variety of household, institutional and industrial cleaning compounds as well as flavor and fragrance additives.

Orange Terpenes has benefits over many other solvents due to its excellent solvency, high degree of biodegradability and derivation from renewable resources.

 

[arbeadub]

I have used biodiesel as a parts cleaner. when some got spilled on the floor it lifted the stains from the concrete but after I swept up the oil dry the residue still needed washed down with some Dawn dish soap. The biodiesel had no petroleum odor, mostly veg oil smell.

 

[mcbraemer]

Former Chemical Engineer here ... I second Aja8888's suggestion above to try orange turpines (Limonene). It is available from citrusdepot.net. A product name is Ultimate Orange Industrial Degreaser. A quart can be had for $20 and will go a long way diluted with water. I would recommend however that you direct your question to the tech support team (email on their website) of the manufacturer- they may have a more suitable and cost effective product.
Good luck!

 

[pacergal]

kitty litter? have read it helps absorb and remove.

 

[OldShooter]

Thanks guys. I never thought about finding an MSDS and "orange turpines" sounds like the name of a fishing lure. I ordered a quart, delivered, total $35. No money saving initially but we'll see how it dilutes and how it works.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Years ago I worked a side gig at a company that made odor eliminator products. We were experimenting with a substance called Zeolite. Yes, zeolite was an odor eliminator but the granule composition was not suited for the applications we needed (spray liquid format.)

At the time I heard it was excellent stuff for leaching oil stains out of concrete. I took a sample home and tried it on several oil leak stains on my concrete driveway. I sprinkled a small amount of the zeolite on the oils stains, covering them completely, and let set for a couple of days. After a couple of days I used a small broom and a dustpan and swept up the zeolite. The stuff works like magic--completely removed the oil stain and left behind a slightly bleached area.

I had a gallon jug full of zeolite and I think in the 25 years since, I've used about half of it, exclusively on drying up and removing oil stains.

I just did a search and found zeolite granules but the applications are numerous and frankly, the claims are a bit unbelievable. However, I did find this website which is related to your application.

https://zeolitepremier.com/oil-absorption/#

Also this:
https://absorb-z.com/zeolite-oil-absorbent-home/

Curious that they don't list the price. I don't remember it being expensive when we got it, but that was 25 years ago and we were getting good pricing on it.

 

[latexman]

I never thought about finding an MSDS and "orange turpines" sounds like the name of a fishing lure.

Active, soon to be former, Chemical Engineer here. When unfamiliar with a raw material, product or component, an MSDS is the first thing I Google.

Please tell us how it works once you've tried it.

 

[jim584672]

Just get some Dawn and a scrub brush.