Yeşil Etiketin Ötesinde: Yeni Nesil Çözücülerin SürdürülebilirliğininYaşam Döngüsü ve Çok Ölçütlü Yaklaşımlarla Eleştirel Değerlendirilmesi

Green solvents are gaining increasing importance in sustainable chemistry with the objective of reducing the environmental, health, and safety impacts of traditional organic solvents. However, a solvent's bio-based origin or its classification as "green" does not inherently imply a lower overall environmental impact. This study provides a critical comparison of the primary approaches used to evaluate the sustainability of next-generation green solvents. Life cycle assessment, solvent selection guides, Green Environmental Assessment and Rating for Solvents (GEARS), Green Solvent Guide/Database (GreenSOL), Deep Eutectic Solvents Eco-Scale (DES Ecoscale), and machine learning-based approaches are examined in terms of scope, application domain, and methodological limitations. The evaluation accounts for criteria including feedstock source, environmental impacts throughout the life cycle, toxicological and occupational risks, technical performance, recoverability, and economic viability.

The literature demonstrates that solvent sustainability cannot be reduced to a single attribute, and outcomes are highly sensitive to system boundaries, data quality, scale, and application context. While life cycle assessment (LCA) stands out as the most comprehensive framework rendering environmental trade-offs visible, selection guides and multi-criteria tools offer preliminary screening and decision support. Machine learning-based methods appear useful for early-stage screening; however, they do not substitute for life cycle assessment, and their inherent uncertainties require separate evaluation.