Airgas Inc. is going green—and going to the dry cleaner's.

The Radnor, Pa.-based industrial gases distributor inked a deal with dry cleaning products manufacturer R.R. Street & Co. Inc. to supply liquid carbon dioxide systems and products to users of Street's environmentally friendly Solvair dry cleaning process.

The Solvair system cleans garments using a biodegradable cleaning solvent. The garments are then dried without heat using a succession of pressurized liquid carbon dioxide rinses, which removes the remaining cleaning liquid. The gas is then re-condensed into liquid form and re-used.

Airgas custom-engineered the liquid carbon dioxide gas supply system; as a provision of the deal, the industrial distributor will also supply the liquid carbon dioxide to the dry cleaners using the Solvair system.

“Solvair is a major advance in the science of cleaning garments and is the result of more than eight years of intensive research and development,” R.R. Street & Co. president and CEO Ross Beard says.

“With this agreement, Solvair will be able to offer its customers a cost-effective supply of consistent quality liquid carbon dioxide,” notes Kelly Justice, senior vice president at Airgas, which ranked fifth on INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION's 2007 Big 50 list of distributors with sales of $3.2 billion during fiscal 2007.

“We have worked with Solvair to custom-engineer a more eco-friendly and efficient liquid carbon dioxide gas supply system that will work with this revolutionary cleaning process. It also includes telemetry and on-site monitoring to ensure safe and reliable supply,” adds Justice, who is leading the design of the liquid carbon dioxide systems.

Street installed the first Solvair unit in an Illinois dry cleaner and will be adding units in New Jersey, California and Louisiana over the next several weeks. The system is set to debut throughout the United States next year.