Ethyl lactate, an ester of lactic acid, is a "green" solvent derived from processing corn. Lactate esters solvents are commonly used solvents in the paints and coatings industry and have numerous attractive advantages including being 100% biodegradable, easy to recycle, noncorrosive, noncarcinogenic, and nonozone depleting.
Ethyl lactate is an important organic ester, which is biodegradable and can be used as food additive, in perfumery, as flavour chemicals and solvent, which can dissolve acetic acid cellulose and many resins (Tanaka et al., 2002). It is a particularly attractive solvent for the coatings industry as a result of its high solvency power, high boiling point, low vapour pressure and low surface tension. Ethyl lactate is a desirable coating for wood, polystyrene and metals and also acts as a very effective paint stripper and graffiti remover. It has replaced solvents including N-methyl Pyrrolidone (NMP) (Reisch, 2008), toluene, acetone and xylene, which has resulted in the workplace being made a great deal safer.
ethyl lactate structure
