Total solvent usage in the U.S. is 3.8 million tons per year, and due to toxicity and environmental needs, a large fraction needs to be replaced.  Ethyl lactate and its blends with soy methyl ester have excellent solvating properties and, when price and other market penetration issues are considered, approximately 25% of the solvent usage can be addressed by these biosolvents.  This project will use pervaporation membrane separations technology to develop a “direct” process for the large scale commercial production of ethyl lactate.  The process would be very economical and would not produce salt wastes.  In Phase I, the technical feasibility of direct esterification was established by developing and testing new pervaporation membrane materials with high ammonia affinity and fluxes.  Phase II will further develop the technology and get it ready for a commercial demonstration plant.  Year one will be focused on obtaining and evaluating new membranes, modifying the pilot plant, conducting preliminary pilot tests, and working up preliminary economics.  The final pilot plant process tests, economic update, and preliminary engineering design will be completed in Year 2. 

Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee:  The addressable market volume is very large, 2.2 billion lb/yr for the U.S. and approximately 6.6 billion lb/yr worldwide.  In addition to the biosolvents, the availability of low-cost ethyl lactate in large market volumes will support the use of ethyl lactate as a chemical intermediate for biodegradable plastics, propylene glycol, acrylates, and other products, an additional potential market greater than 7 billion lb/yr in the U.S.