Effect of mixing paracetic acid and a caustic based washing solution

aidanki

hi all,

question someone might be able to help me with, Im from a farming backround

at the end of the milking cycle the plant is washed with a detergent mix to remove any milk residue.

Traditionally this has always been a caustic solution, one of these

http://www.agresearch.teagasc.ie/moorepark/Articles/Chemicalanalysisofdetergentsterilizerproducts.pdf

another chemical that can be used is Peracetic Acid @2% mix

If I mix the two of these in the one bath of water and circulate it through the milk plant what will be the effect on the ability of the solution to clean ?

as these products are at the opposite end of the Ph scale will they combine and one cancel the other out ?

SOL

I would not recommend mixing these two cleaning agents, firstly you are right, the acid and base will neutralise each other, at best this will reduce the cleaning performance, at worst, it may cause other reactions to take place. The peracetic acid is a fairly strong oxidising agent somewhat similar to hydrogen peroxide. Mixing strong oxidising agents with other solutions is not a great idea unless you know exactly what you are doing, it can result in a range of reactions which again - at best diminishing its cleaning power at worst producing toxic or hazardous materials.

In short, I wouldn't recommend it.