The best way of removing the acid is to flush it or free it from the liquid and hard surfaces that contain the acid using QwikShot® Refrigerant and Oil Treatment, and let the filter-drier in the system remove the acid.
A filter-drier does an excellent job of removing acid, the problem is that normally the acid that is trapped on the hard surfaces and in the oil and therefore the acid never effectively gets to the filter-drier.
Another good, but very expensive approach to remove the acidic residue throughout the system is by performing several flushes of the vapor-compression system with refrigerant, since refrigerant will dissolve the oil and reduce the oil and acid concentrations by dilution. However, because of EPA mandated refrigerant recovery requirements, this is a costly and time consuming task and the cost of the refrigerant used in the flushing operation is not trivial.
The worst way is to attempt to neutralize the acid by reacting the acid with a basic solution (a solid base dissolved in a liquid carrier). This will always result in the formation of undesirable salts. In such a neutralization reaction, the acid and base combine to form a metallic caustic salt and water. While the water can be removed by the filter/dryer in the system, the salt remains lodged in the system and could cause problems. Since the salt is a solid it will not vaporize, but instead will remain in the compressor’s crankcase. Also to properly neutralize the acid the proper amount of base must be added, too little base and the refrigerant is still acidic, too much base and the refrigerant is basic. An acidic or basic environment will cause corrosion and premature compressor life (burn-out).
The advantage to the patented QwikShot® Refrigerant and Oil Treatment approach of liberating the acid is that since there is no neutralization reaction there is no formation of a caustic salt residue. This innovative technology to provide this treatment action is patented and is only available in the QwikShot® Refrigerant and Oil Treatment. The other benefit of the use of QwikShot® is that not only is the acid picked up and removed from the system by the filter-drier, the QwikShot® is also picked-up and adsorbed by the filter-drier thereby leaving no residue at all in the system!