Patent ID: 7367206

Claim:
A dry-cleaning machine for performing a drying process whereby hot air is supplied into a drying tub containing laundry articles washed with a solvent, and an air exiting from the drying tub is cooled to liquefy, condense and recover a gasified solvent contained in the air, comprising: (i) a water separation unit for removing water from a mixture of the liquefied and condensed solvent and the water to recover the solvent with a high level of purity, where a coalescer type of filter is used as the water separation unit, the water separation unit including a tank for storing the mixture, the tank having an inlet port located in its upper part for introducing the mixture; a filter member immersed in the mixture stored in the tank, where the solvent is stored in a solvent storage chamber defined on one side of the filter member opposite to the mixture, and the filter member allows only the solvent contained in the mixture to pass through into the solvent storage chamber, the filter member comprising a plurality of fibers, wherein the coalescer type of filter allows the solvent to pass through the fibers of the filter member, whereas the water is condensed into large drops and the water drops are collected at the bottom of the tank (ii) a solvent recovery pipe with its upper end located in the solvent storage chamber; and (iii) a drainage pipe connected to a bottom part of the tank, including: a vertical part for bringing the water from the tank to a level higher than the bottom part of the tank, and a horizontal part located downstream of the vertical part, where the highest point within the horizontal part is lower than the upper end of the solvent recovery pipe.