Global solvent demand

One of the most substantial uses for methanol as a solvent is in automobile windshield washer fluid. The major function of the fluid is for ice and insect removal. It usually contains 1050% of methanol in water, depending upon the temperature in the area. However, beeause of the mild winters for the past few years in the United States, the lar st single market globally, the demand for windshield washer fluid has been reduced. 

Lactic acid is a three-carbon alpha-hydroxy acid that exists in two enantiomers, whose carboxyl and hydroxyl groups can undergo a number of reactions that make it a versatile building block. The global annual demand for lactic acid is estimated to be at least 130000 tonnes with approximately 85% of this demand directed towards food and food-related applications [8]. Out of the food applications, more than 50% is used for producing emulsifiers such as lactic acid esters of fatty acids and monoglycerides discussed previously [3]. However, the new applications, such as green solvents and polylactic acid (PLA) plastics, have driven a sharp increase in production in recent years [33]. 

Today, acetone and butanol are used as solvents and chemical building blocks for a diverse range of applications from paints, adhesives, and inks to food ingredients, cosmetic and personal care applications, to pharmaceuticals, plastics, and polymers. According to ICIS market data, the annual global markets for butanol is 3.4 million tonnes (worth over 5 billion) and for acetone it is 6 million tonnes (worth 6 billion). Today, the solvent markets are supplied petroleum-derived acetone and butanol. There is increasing demand for renewable chemicals derived from sustainable feedstocks as replacements for chemicals derived from oil. At present, renewable chemicals comprise about 10% of the chemical market and this is forecast to grow at 18% per year to 98.5 billion by 2020 [176]. 

Despite the great development of computer and code performances, the size of the biosystem is stUl limited to about 1,000 atoms for geometry optimization and 150 atoms for reasonably long dynamics. Moreover, taking into account the solvent, when a global treatment is not sufficient, increases the computational demand even more. 

It is likely that solvent-based processing of recovered plastics will grow in the future as part of the overall global infrastructure for plastics recovery. Economies of scale will help to cover the overhead costs required to meet demanding environmental and safety requirements for chemical processing. Some advantages and disadvantages of solvent-based separation processed are summarized here ... 

Figure 13.3 Life cycle data availability for conventional solvents that have been proposed for CO2 capture. CED, cumulative energy demand GWP, global warming potential El-99, Ecoindicator 99.

The DFT analysis of the global properties of the interacting pair diene/dienophile illustrates the normal electron demand character of these DA reactions. It is possible to show that the local indexes provide useful clues about the regiodirector effects, particularly of the nitro group. The presence of a solvent (molecular or neoteric) as the reaction media does not... 

The global lactic acid demand was estimated to be 714.2 kilo tons in 2013, which is expected to reach 1,960.1 kilo tons by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 15.5 % from 2014 to 2020 (SpecialChem 2014). Growth in demand for LA and its salts and esters in industrial applications will be driven mainly by LA-based biodegradable polymers and, to a lesser degree, lactate solvents (Abdel-Rahman et al. 2013 TaskUa and Ojamo 2013). 

One of the largest areas of consumption of petroleum-based chemicals in a conventional chemical transformation are solvents used as reaction media (i.e., solvents account for 80-90% of mass utilization in a typical phannaceutical/fine chemical operational process). Thus, solvents are responsible for most of the waste generated in the chemical industries and laboratories. In this sense, and to face the diminution of oil supplies, there has been a global demand for the development of renewable solvents that are not based on crude petroleum. On the other hand, conventional volatile organic solvents (VOCs) commonly used as reaction media can cause well-estabhshed environmental problems due to their ... 

---