Biosolvents - Design, properties and environmental aspects

Solvents occupy an important place in the specialty products market, and are at the heart of numerous applications in extraction, synthesis, formulation and cleaning processes. Several factors are driving this market trend towards cleaner, safer solvents: a context marked by regulations aimed at reducing the impact of products on man and the environment, the depletion of fossil resources, the diversification of raw materials, a strategic interest in terms of corporate communication, and growing user demand for environmentally-friendly products. These changes are prompting research laboratories and companies to develop alternatives to petrochemical solvents, such as biosolvents. The latter are covered by an AFNOR standard, which describes a number of criteria expected of a biosolvent.

Depending on the plant raw material from which they are derived, different families of biosolvents are available for a wide range of applications.

The assessment of their performance is based on technical, environmental and health criteria, concerning their production and use, in line with an eco-design approach.

To identify a high-performance biosolvent for a targeted application, new substitution methodologies based on property prediction models have been developed to cope with the complexity of this task.

This article takes stock of the current panomara of available biosolvents and proposes strategies and tools for the design and selection of biobased solvents adapted to technical, economic, societal and environmental constraints.