Green solvents.

RESEARCH PAPER
DEPARTEMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING, COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING &
COMPUTER SCIENCES, ABUDHABI UNIVERSITY – UAE

GENERAL CHEMISTRY II

Shama Ali- 1062421

Noor Mohammed - 1062948

Roz Zaarour – 1062898

Submitted to Priya Breitener.

Introduction

Solvents play a very important role in determining the rate of any reaction. For any chemical

reaction to take place with a good speed and to form a good quality product the phase of solute

and solvent plays a very important role. In some cases if our solute is in the solid form then

this does not necessarily means that solvent must also be in the solid form because in that case

it is impossible for a reaction to take place. From this one can easily get an idea about the phase

of solvent on the speed of any reaction. Not only the phase of solute but the PH range also has

an impact on any reaction taking place. The change in PH value might result in increasing or

decreasing the speed of any reaction (An absolute acidity scale, 2018)]1[ . The PH range at

which reaction rate is at its maximum is known as the optimum PH and it is most suitable PH

limit for any reaction.

Green solvents

A Green solvent is solvent that can be biodegradable but be volatile and ozone depleting. It can

have an extremely low impact on health and the environment but needs a great amount of

energy to be manufactured (Medina-Gonzalez, Camy & Condoret, 2014)]2[ . Before deciding

that a solvent is greener than other solvents some questions must be asked. In the same way for

a process to be both green and sustainable, it must be both environmental and economically

considered. However, it is generally accepted that low impact on health and the environment

as well as low volatilities are desirable characteristics of green solvents. Still, even if low

volatility is a highly desirable characteristic in a solvent, several solvents considered as “green”

such as ethanol, ethyl acetate, and limonene are volatile yet at the same time are greener than

other less volatile solvents (Medina-Gonzalez, Camy & Condoret, 2014)]2[ .

 Figure 1 Höfer, R., & Bigorra, J. (2007)

Examples of green solvents

Since the process of selecting a solvent can highly affect the product it’s important to consider

the overall process impacts. it is possible that a replacing a non-green solvent by a green solvent

could lead, for example, to a lower yield of the product and greater waste, or the requirement

for conditions that needs more energy. In these cases, the process could become less

environmentally sustainable. overall, it’s important to select a solvent that will give more

sustainable process/ product (Welton, T. 2015)]3[ .

Table 1 (Et.al , 2016)

Excerpt of the GSK solvent selection guide (dipolar aprotic solvents)

Acetone
As we know water is the best green solvent to replace harmful chemicals but then comes

acetone to be less harmful for the environment compared to other substances. Acetone is an

organic compound that is also volatile that has a chemical formula of (CH3COCH3) that is

acidic with a ph=2. (Brown, 2018)]4[.

How can acetone be a green solvent?

Acetone is called green solvent due to its renewable production. Many industries produce

acetone by huge masses. It is a solvent the could be used to produces various of drugs in

pharmaceutical and medicines fields. Therefore, acetone can be manufactured in many

different ways, but the best ways scientist has found that acetone can be produced in

fermentation stage and it is naturally available in plants and trees.

So, then we can consider that the manufacture of acetone can be always renewable and natural,

and it decreases the usage of dangers and hazardous substance and chemical that is harmful for

our environment (Joubein, n.d.)]5[.

Using Acetone as a Degreaser

Degreasing is a process that extracts many undesirable dirt, dust, grease or oil from a part of

device or to make an item set for its finishing that is used in many industries. Although there

are many other alternative products to make this process, but acetone is the most that meets the

degreasing needs. However, acetone is called a solvent or most specifically a cleaning agent.

Acetone is easy to get since it is extracted from natural sources and does not cost that much.

This amazing solvent evaporates much faster than other choices of compounds. A degreaser
 machine or the process is tremendously dry and non-oily hence it has to guarantee that there is

not extra coat is left over as the cleaning procedure takes place.

Acetone can only be used when it has to clean or serves as cleaner from solvent-resistant

finishes like varnish or epoxy resin.

Acetone can be very beneficial in equipment safeguarding, cleaning, degreasing, finishing,

and paint removal. The most beneficial fact in acetone that it can removes tremendous
quantities of grease and other unnecessary items from surfaces without introducing
VOC(•VOLATILE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS) oriented agent into the surround atmosphere.,
VOC are organic chemicals that contains very high vapor pressure at normal pressure, usually
some compounds such as formaldehyde that’s is released from paints. Some VOC compounds
could be very dangerous for our environment and human health.
oriented agent into the surround atmosphere. In the degreasing process, acetone is capable of

eliminating many of the problems related to sticky and heavy-duty equipment or surface

pollutant exclusion surface products. (Degreasers, 2013)]6[..

In green chemistry, there are a lot of solvents, but I choose that acetone is the one the best green

solvents among others compounds such as methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, water, and ionic

liquid. in terms of many aspects and their effects on environment and health and safety uses

depending on which process it undergoes.

However, acetone is very cheap in cost and which makes it attractive to solvents.

Therefore, each green solvent has its own purpose and job to do and each have different

reactions with substances. As you go to the right side , the solvents

become more green solvents and less harmful

for our universe , so therefore acetone is

preferable in too many process but yet it is still

somehow harmful for our environment but it

would cause less harmful and more safety then

other hazardous compounds used in industries.

One of the laboratories in the world, called EHS in which their job is to check all the solvents impact on the

environment and its safety usage. In this research and experiments they started to compare between different

green solvents on terms of their environment issue, health and safety of this substance that will be used in any

chemical process. The green solvents were acetone, methanol, ethanol, and isopropanol.
 In terms of health issues: In terms of Safety In terms of environment:

(7)

1-In terms of health issues, ethanol scored to the highest score to be the healthiest due because it is not

irritating, however, isopropanol and acetone behaves as central nervous systems depressants, but they are less

toxic than methanol.

2-On the other hand, chloroform tend be high chronic toxicity, but it is the safest substance among them.

Acetone has scored the highest to be dangerous because it is flammable liquid and could be dangerous if used

wrong or on skin but in chemical process it could be very less dangers than other toxic chemical.

3- In terms of the safety of the environment, acetone and methanol scored very well and they are the most

substance that cause risks for the environment (Connelly, 2016)]7[.

Laboratories as they start processing in chemical process they really care about how much

amount of solvent will cost, and many they look for cheap compounds without looking how

much it could be harmful to the environment. Yet, acetone is a great green solvent due to that

it is cheap in cost but not cheaper then methanol but it is less harmful to our environment than

methanol and could be safe if used by experts ]7[.

 (7 )
We can conclude after these graphs and how each solvent has scored, it is said the

ethanol
. would be the best to be used in laborites (4). However, as I said that each

green solvent can be replaced in process depending on the process and what this

substance is capable to do in this process for a better and a healthier environment.

 References
]1[ An absolute acidity scale for solvents. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/an-absolute-acidity-scale-for-solvents/3007918.article

]2[ Medina-Gonzalez, Y., Camy, S., & Condoret, J. (2014). ScCO2/Green Solvents: Biphasic
Promising Systems for Cleaner Chemicals Manufacturing. ACS Sustainable Chemistry &
Engineering, 2(12), 2623-2636. doi: 10.1021/sc5004314

]3[Welton, T. (2015). Solvents and sustainable chemistry. Proceedings. Mathematical, Physical,

and Engineering Sciences / The Royal Society, 471(2183), 20150502.
http://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2015.0502

]4[Brown, W. H. (2018, februaruy 23). Retrieved from

https://www.britannica.com/science/acetone:

]5[ Joubein, M. (n.d.). Retrieved from Green Alternatives to Acetone:

https://allaboutacetone.weebly.com/green-alternative.htm

]6[ Degreasers, b. I. (2013, march). Retrieved from Using Acetone as a Degreaser :

https://ecolink.com/info/using-acetone-as-a-degreaser/

]7[ Connelly, A. (2016, November). science, food, technicians, etc. Retrieved from Going Green
– Solvents.

]8[
Figure 1
Byrne, F. P., Jin, S., Paggiola, G., Petchey, T. H., Clark, J. H., Farmer, T. J., . . . Sherwood, J.
(2016). Tools and techniques for solvent selection: Green solvent selection
guides. Sustainable Chemical Processes, 4(1). doi:10.1186/s40508-016-0051-z

Table 1

Höfer, R., & Bigorra, J. (2007, January 10). Green chemistry-a sustainable solution for

industrial specialties applications. Retrieved from

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2007/gc/b606377b/unauth#!divAbstract