Developing inexpensive, non-hazardous and environmentally-benign solvents for industrial activities

有机溶剂是从各种基质中提取烃类的最常用溶剂。这是尽管他们的生产困难，费用，健康危害和对环境的潜在危害。在科技和金融公司的赠款下，为ExoMars使命开发了提取碳氢化合物的新的水基溶剂系统。这些表面活性剂（聚山梨酯80）为基础的解决方案是廉价，高效，安全，环境友好，现在准备转移到工业。新的溶剂可以取代工业清洁活动中使用的有机溶剂。所述表面活性剂可以帮助从水中除去有机化合物，并且对于处理来自石油回收活动的污染的废水沃茨是潜在有价值的，从而显著降低这些大规模工业过程的高水需求。现有的设备和程序可以很容易地适应新的溶剂系统。技术转让具有巨大的经济效益和较小的风险。

Organic solvents are the most commonly used solvents for extracting hydrocarbons from various matrices. This is despite their difficulty of production, expense, health hazards and potential harm to the environment. New water-based solvent systems for extracting hydrocarbons have been developed for the ExoMars mission under STFC grants. These surfactant (Polysorbate 80) based solutions are cheap, efficient, safe, environmentally benign and are now ready for transfer to industry. The new solvents can replace organic solvents used in industrial cleaning activities. The surfactants can help scavenge organic compounds from water and are potentially valuable for treating contaminated waste waters from petroleum recovery activities thereby dramatically reducing the high water demand for these large scale industrial processes. Existing equipment and procedures can be easily adapted to accommodate the new solvent systems. The technology transfer carries great financial benefit and little risk.