The Benefits Of Using Wheat Starch As Aircraft Paint Stripper

Aircraft paint stripping has changed very much from the days when methylene chloride was widely used for the purpose. Awareness about the need for environmental protection from hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and the health hazards due to them gave rise to federal regulations which mooted the changes.

Today any potential paint stripper used in the US for de-painting aircraft must meet the criteria laid down by the various arms of the US federal government that monitor the various related aspects. Three main regulations form the guiding principles for applicability and use as an aircraft paint stripper.

These include the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Title 40 Section 63 NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) for Source Categories. These also include the applicable EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations.

More or less any chemical used for aircraft paint stripping has at least some degree of adverse impact on the environment as HAP (hazardous air pollutant). Usually, it may even have adverse impact on the health of aircraft paint stripping operators. In contrast it has been found that wheat starch used as an aircraft paint stripper avoids most of the regulatory concerns in regard to environmental damage and health hazards.

Wheat starch is used in crystalline form as blasting media for aircraft de-painting. It has many benefits. It is non-toxic, made from essentially renewable resources, and it is biodegradable.

It is softer than plastic media used for aircraft paint stripping. The pressure used for blasting wheat starch is less than 35 pounds per square inch. Due to these two features, the substrata under the surface of aircraft are not unduly affected by wheat starch.

Another benefit of using wheat starch for the purpose is that it can help depaint wide variety of coatings off aircraft surfaces. This it is able to do without peeling off the primer off the surface of aircraft. Moreover, it leaves cadmium plated substrata unaffected.

A blasting system that uses wheat starch media can strip paint off aircraft without resulting in messy sludge as is found when other media are used instead. Spent wheat starch can be easily reused by recycling it. Although ultimately some waste sludge results, it is about 85% less than from chemical strippers.

An important aspect of the use of wheat starch as blasting medium for aircraft surface paint removal is the compliance to various related federal regulations. It does not give rise to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the atmosphere as is the case with most chemicals used for aircraft depainting.
It is HAP-free and its use is not covered in the exclusions list SARA (Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act) Title III. It does not require management of waste as much as chemicals used for aircraft paint stripping operations do.

In view of all these wheat starch also does not pose risk to human health. Even administrative and recordkeeping burden with wheat starch is much less than it is with chemical associated hazardous waste disposal.
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