Technology brief
What this platform addresses
A spray booth catches overspray in a water curtain dosed with a detackifying reagent.
Public version — process detail withheld
Waste Management
ARBOK-Paint
A spray booth catches overspray in a water curtain dosed with a detackifying reagent.
The challenge
The problem this technology addresses
Water-curtain wastewater from automotive assembly, furniture manufacturing, appliance coating and aerospace finishing lines. Output: recovered water returned to the booth circuit, and a dry pigment-and-resin concentrate as a separate stream for reuse or sale.
ARBOK solution
How the ARBOK system creates value
A spray booth catches overspray in a water curtain dosed with a detackifying reagent. The reagent turns the paint into a sludge, the sludge is pumped out by hand, and the sludge leaves as hazardous waste. Every step of that chain exists to manage a problem the first step created. ARBOK-Paint runs the booth's water circuit under deep vacuum at ambient temperature: the water evaporates and goes back to the booth, and the paint solids leave dry. Because no detackifier is dosed, there is no floc to pump out and no wet reagent-bound sludge to haul.
Booth wastewater flows by gravity into the unit under deep vacuum, where water reaches its boiling point at ambient temperature and condenses separately for return to the booth. With no detackifier upstream, the paint does not clump — it separates as a dry solid concentrate inside the unit.
Market and application
Commercial opportunity
Paint and coatings account for over 15% of all industrial waste in the US. The paint-sludge removal systems market runs $1.2–2.5 bln, growing 8.7% a year, against a global paint and coatings market of $183 bln. Every site running a water-curtain spray booth at volume is a candidate.
Avoided reagent purchase, avoided hazardous hauling and burial — a single automotive booth holding 12,000 gallons is pumped out at about $20,000 a time, at least monthly, roughly $240k a year per booth before anything else — plus recovered-concentrate revenue, against the module. Payback 5–7 years.
Use cases
Where the technology can be applied
Water-curtain wastewater from automotive assembly, furniture manufacturing, appliance coating and aerospace finishing lines. Output: recovered water returned to the booth circuit, and a dry pigment-and-resin concentrate as a separate stream for reuse or sale.
View preserved source description
Overview
A spray booth catches overspray in a water curtain dosed with a detackifying reagent. The reagent turns the paint into a sludge, the sludge is pumped out by hand, and the sludge leaves as hazardous waste. Every step of that chain exists to manage a problem the first step created. ARBOK-Paint runs the booth's water circuit under deep vacuum at ambient temperature: the water evaporates and goes back to the booth, and the paint solids leave dry. Because no detackifier is dosed, there is no floc to pump out and no wet reagent-bound sludge to haul.
Applications
Water-curtain wastewater from automotive assembly, furniture manufacturing, appliance coating and aerospace finishing lines. Output: recovered water returned to the booth circuit, and a dry pigment-and-resin concentrate as a separate stream for reuse or sale.
Operating Principle
Booth wastewater flows by gravity into the unit under deep vacuum, where water reaches its boiling point at ambient temperature and condenses separately for return to the booth. With no detackifier upstream, the paint does not clump — it separates as a dry solid concentrate inside the unit.
Key Parameters
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Process temperature | ambient — no heat supplied, no setpoint |
| Detackifying reagent | not used |
| Membrane stage | none |
| Output | booth water returned to circuit + dry pigment/resin concentrate |
Advantages
Removes the reagent, the manual pump-out and the hazardous-waste haul from the same circuit. The water stays in the booth, and the paint solids become a product stream instead of a disposal line.
Market Potential
Paint and coatings account for over 15% of all industrial waste in the US. The paint-sludge removal systems market runs $1.2–2.5 bln, growing 8.7% a year, against a global paint and coatings market of $183 bln. Every site running a water-curtain spray booth at volume is a candidate.
Related Technologies
ARBOK-VC (Vacuum Cracking) · ARBOK-Solvents · ARBOK VOC RECOVERY
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