Deep eutectic solvents for highly efficient separations in oil and gas industries

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) have captured a great scientific attention as a new, 'green' and sustainable class of tailor-made solvents. DESs share many properties with ionic liquids (ILs) including low vapor pressure, wide liquid range, thermal stability, low flammability, and high solvation capability while being simpler to make from low-cost constituents. DESs have demonstrated excellence in several research fields such as chemical synthesis, biochemistry, separation technologies, electrochemistry, catalysis and others. In this review selected applications of DESs in separation processes of oil and gas will be discussed such as: dearomatization, desulfurization, the removal of glycerol from biofuel and natural gas sweetening.