Green Solvents - Formulating for a New Era

Many common organic solvents that are utilized daily in industrial, commercial and academic settings are known to be toxic to workers, end-user as well as detrimental to the environment. As awareness increases to the deleterious effects of these solvents, regulations for emissions and exposure are constantly being reviewed and updated to restrict their use across industries and the sale of such products in the marketplace. The following discussion introduces new technologies that hold great promise for formulators and chemists to reduce or replace certain commonly used organic solvents. These materials have been carefully formulated in order to replace some of the frequently utilized traditional solvents that currently require reduction of use or phasing out under new regulations.