Patent ID: 7507301

Claim:
A method of treating equipment of oil-based contamination, comprising the step of applying a basic, aqueous cleaning composition to equipment, thereby removing oil-based contamination from the equipment, wherein the equipment includes that from at least one of the following industries: asphalt industry, bituminous, and oil field and consists essentially of: about 0.1% to about 99% by weight of an alkali, wherein the alkali is chosen from at least one of the following: sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide, cesium hydroxide, monoethylamine, diethylamine, triethylamine, monomethylamine, dimethylamine, trimethylamine, isopropylamine, diisopropylamine, isoprapanolamine, diisopropanolamine, triisopropanolamine, monoethanol amine, diethanolamine, triethanolamine, ammonium hydroxide, sodium aluminate, potassium aluminate, calcium oxide, magnesium oxide, cesium oxide, sodium metasilicate monosodium phosphate, disodium phosphate, trisodium phosphate, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium sulfate, sodium borate, sodium carbonate, sodium hydrogen carbonate, sodium sesquicarbonate, sodium orthosilicate, sodium sesquisilicate, sodium polysilicates, alkaline sodium silicate, neutral sodium silicate, and combinations thereof and about 0.2% to about 60% by weight of an organic acid, the organic acid being chosen from at least one of the following: mono-chloral acetic acid (MCAA), carbonic acid, formic acid, acetic acid, alycolic acid, lactic acid, propionic acid, maleic acid, malic acid, gluconic acid, glucaric acid, mucic acid, heptanoic acid, hexanoic acid, and combinations thereof.