The implementation of the Montreal Protocol, the Clean Air Act, and the Pollution Prevention Act of 1990 has resulted in increased awareness of organic solvent use in chemical processing. The advances made in the search to find "green" replacements for traditional solvents are reviewed, with reference to solvent alternatives for cleaning, coatings, and chemical reaction and separation processes. The development of solvent databases and computational methods that aid in the selection and/or design of feasible or optimal environmentally benign solvent alternatives for specific applications is also discussed.ImagesFigure 2Figure 3
Identified green solvents of current interest for biomass pretreatment. • Discussed formation, types, materials and design methodologies of green solvents. • Reviewed potential applications of choline chloride (ChCl) based green solvents. • Existing challenges of green solvents are emphasized for future research.
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