Handbook of Solvents - George Wypych - ChemTech - Ventech!

1306 Carlos M. Nu�ez
• Program for Assisting the Replacement of Industrial Solvents (PARIS): PARIS is a
solvent design software system developed by EPA, the National Research Council,
and RTI to substitute offending solvents with a single chemical or a mixture of
solvents based on physical and chemical properties and activity coefficients. PARIS
also evaluates and considers the environmental properties of the substitute
chemicals. The program’s recommended alternatives may require testing to validate
their performance. 70
• Computer-Aided Molecular Design (CAMD): CAMD was developed by the
Department of Chemical Engineering’s Computer-Aided Process Engineering
Centre at the Technical University of Denmark. CAMD can be used to select and
design new solvents based on thermodynamic properties. It contains a database
with thousands of chemicals which can be accessed to select the desired chemical. If
the chemical does not exist, CAMD uses computational chemistry to build the
chemical configuration of the new chemical. 70
• EPA’s Environmental Technology Verification (ETV) program was established to
verify the performance of innovative technical solutions to environmental and
human health problems. Companies with new commercial-ready environmental
technologies can participate in this program. For more information visit ETV’s
website at http://www.epa.gov/etvprgrm/index.htm. Canada also instituted an ETV
program to foster Canada’s environmental technologies
(http://www2.ec.gc.ca/etad/etv_e.html).
• South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) has established a
program to certify clean air solvents for industrial cleaning. Large and small
industries can be exempted from record-keeping requirements and emission fees if
they use clean air solvents. For more information about SCAQMD’s Clean Air
Solvent (CAS) Certification program visit http://www.aqmd.gov/tao/cas/cas.html.
19.9 SUMMARY
Solvent releases can affect the quality of air, water, and soil which can then have adverse effects
on human health and the environment. More stringent environmental laws and regulations
have been established to control their utilization and ensure a safer and healthier
environment and a sustainable future. They are placing greater emphasis on the elimination
or reduction of such releases at the source and the preservation of limited natural resources.
However, replacing offensive solvents requires a comprehensive assessment of their overall
environmental impact. This will ensure that substitute chemicals will not impose more
stress on our environment and human health by transferring the problem to other media.
This chapter was intended to provide a “bird’s eye view” of key environmental laws
and regulations for solvents. This chapter will not serve as a replacement of the laws discussed
herein.
REFERENCES
1 Clean Air Act Amendments of 1970, Public Law 91-604, December 31, 1970.
2 N.P. Cheremisinoff and M.L. Graffia, Environmental and Health & Safety Management: A Guide to
Compliance, Noyes Publications, New York, NY, 1995.
3 Pollution Prevention Act of 1990,42 U.S.C. §13101, et seq.