[Capitalmind]

There is an old post on this but the answers weren't completely relevant plus the forum suggested I started a new post to ensure I get an answer!

I want to wash polyethylene terephthalate flakes (water bottles) in hot NaOH solution. This is a common washing process and I'm toying with the idea of making small washing machines, the easiest material being plastic as large commercial units are stainless steel and very expensive. The solution needs to be strong enough and hot enough so that during agitation, the flakes come out as clean as possible. I then need to neutralize the NaoH leaving a pH of no greater than 0.7.

I have a few questions:

• What ratio of NaoH to water would be suitable for washing dirty plastic
• What plastic could I make a washer from that will not dissolve in NaOH
• Based on the wash dilution, how would I rinse and confirm pH of less than 0.7? Can I calculate the amount of water to add to achieve this from the input solution or will this vary greatly based on the contamination stuck to the input material. (All material will be post consumer waste, water/coke bottles)

[billnotgatez]

I did a GOOGLE and found this
using
plastics resistant to sodium hydroxide


Chemical Resistance of Plastics
https://www.tedpella.com/company_html/PlasticsChemResistance.htm

There were lots of hits