Patent ID: 8505559

Claim:
A cleaning apparatus comprising: a liquid carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) supply source and a gaseous CO 2 supply source; a high pressure pump changing CO 2 supplied from the liquid CO 2 supply source to CO 2 having high pressure; a cleaning additive supply source and a rinsing additive supply source; a homogeneous transparent phase mixer forming a supercritical homogeneous transparent phase mixture by mixing a cleaning additive supplied from the cleaning additive supply source and supercritical CO 2 supplied from the liquid CO 2 supply source, or forming a supercritical rinsing mixture by mixing a rinsing additive supplied from the rinsing additive supply source and supercritical CO 2 supplied from the liquid CO 2 supply source; a high pressure cleaner cleaning using the supercritical homogeneous transparent phase mixture supplied from the homogeneous transparent phase mixer and performing rinsing using the supercritical rinsing mixture supplied from the homogeneous transparent phase mixer; a separator separating gaseous CO 2 from a mixture discharged from the high pressure cleaner; and a CO 2 condenser condensing the separated CO 2 ; wherein the homogeneous transparent phase mixer comprises a high pressure vessel, the vessel being separate from the cleaning additive supply source, the rinsing additive supply source, and the high pressure cleaner.