Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have generated interest as a promising green alternative to replace conventional organic and inorganic solvents, because they have exhibited interesting characteristics such as application-specific tunability, nonflamability, variable viscosity, low vapor pressure, and chemical (and thermal) stability. This work aims to evaluate the potential environmental impacts incurred from the production of a representative DES;reline, using a cradle-to-gate Life Cycle Assessment approach (Fig. 1). The environmental profile of reline is compared with organic solvents (toluene and methanol) and inorganic solvents (sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid). The results indicate that DES imparted highest adverse environmental impacts in three of the twelve studied categories: global warming potential, marine eutheriphication potential, and photochemical oxidant formation potential. Also, in general, the DES impacts were higher than toluene, methanol, and sulfuric acid but lower than hydrochloric acid as shown in Table 1. It was observed that auxiliary processes insignificantly contributed to the environmental indicators when compared to the chemical constituent materials (urea, trimethylamine, hydrochloric acid, and ethylene oxide) required for the synthesis of DES. The sensitivity analysis showed that none of the inventory flows was exceptionally sensitive to the studied environmental indicators. This is the first LCA study of any DES and its results warrant further research on the potential of DES as a “greener” alternative to conventional solvents.

Life cycle assessment of deep eutectic solvent-reline

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