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PARIS II THE SEARCH FOR CLEANER SOLVENT REPLACEMENTS FOR RCRA CHEMICALS
Citation:
Harten*, P F. AND G. Salama**,G. PARIS II THE SEARCH FOR CLEANER SOLVENT REPLACEMENTS FOR RCRA CHEMICALS. C. Simpson (ed.), CleanTech. Witter Publishing Company Incorporated, Flemington, NJ, 4(10):20-26, (2004).
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
Solvents used throughout industry are chosen to meet specific technological requirements such as solute solubility, cleaning and degreasing, or being a medium for paints and coatings. With the growing awareness of the human health effects and environmental risks of solvent use, the replacement of solvents with more benign solvents is increasingly important. In this paper, we initially outline the elements of a solvent design theory. Based on this theory, we discuss the PARIS II (Program for Assisting the Replacement of Industrial Solvents) solvent design algorithms and software that designs technologically effective and environmentally benign substitute solvents. We finally present and discuss several cases of finding substitutes for solvents that appear in the RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) chemicals list. The solvent substitutes where found using PARIS II, and include substitutes chemicals involving components from a wide range of chemical families, including ethers, ketones, aromatics, and alkanes. These case studies show that PARIS II can suggest replacement solvents which consistently have lower potential environmental impact while likely maintaining similar levels of technical performance.