Introduction to Biorenewable Solvents

Development of renewable biomass-based solvents to replace fossil fuel-derived solvents is a topic of current interest in green and sustainable chemistry. It reduces the health and environmental impact in the use of solvents. It also addresses the resource and sustainable issues in solvent production. Introduced in this chapter are the structure of recently developed biorenewable solvents including 2-methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF), cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME), propylene carbonate (PC), \(\gamma\) -valerolactone (GVL) and dihydrolevoglucosenone (Cyrene). These solvents will be presented in the later chapters.