Patent ID: 8128976

Claim:
A method of recycling water previously applied to a surface comprising: (a) recovering a peroxycarboxylic acid composition previously applied to a surface; and (b) adding to the recovered composition a sufficient amount of a peroxycarboxylic acid composition to yield a recycled peroxycarboxylic acid composition, the peroxycarboxylic acid composition consisting of: (i) a peroxycarboxylic acid consisting of about 0.0005 to about 5 wt. % peroxyoctanoic acid; (ii) about 0.001 to about 10 wt. % octanoic acid; (iii) about 5 to about 99.99 wt. % water; (iv) about 0.001 to about 60 wt. % of a material selected from the group consisting of polyalkylene oxide, a monoalkyl ether of polyalkylene oxide, dialkyl ether of polyalkylene oxide, nonionic surfactant, anionic surfactant, and mixtures thereof; (v) about 0.002 to about 10 wt. % oxidizing agent; (vi) about 0.001 to about 30 wt. % inorganic acid; and (vii) about 0.001 to about 5 wt. % sequestrant; the composition consisting of at least about 2 parts by weight of peroxyoctanoic acid for each 7 parts by weight of octanoic acid.