Towards a more consistent, application-focused method for the assessment of hazard profil of ionic liquids

Ionic liquids belong to a sub-category of salts being liquids below 100°C. They are currently raising fast increasing interest as multipurpose chemicals for applications in a variety of key industrial sectors. One great expectation lies with their potential use in the emerging bio-based economy (e.g. where they may be used as reactants, solvents or can be used as catalysts or for the production of advanced catalysts). Erroneously considered for a while as green chemicals per se, while referring to potentially millions of Ionic Liquids, more consideration must be paid to their true and uncommon properties. Indeed, to support their sustainable use, more proactive consideration of their potential hazards is highly desirable, beyond conventional rating of chemical hazards as demanded by the CLP or REACh regulations. We recently showed that actual properties of ionic liquids justify a dedicated approach for phys-chem hazard assessment. In order to reveal genuine hazards, they must be evaluated in the context of their intended use, for an appropriate risk-based approach. As a matter of facts, pool fire burning mode of ionic liquids considerably differs from conventional diffusion flames from hydrocarbon liquid fires, as illustrated at figure 1. This presentation focuses on such a topic, based on a recent thesis work performed in collaboration by INERIS, UTC/ESCOM, and two well known ionic liquids providers BASF and CYTEC, with further assistance of URCA, UDRI (USA), and U-Lyon1. Examples provided to illustrate our views cover hazards of phys-chem nature as well as those addressing the potential impact on the environment, from data obtained and processed essentially on imidazolium and phosphonium based ionic liquids. This work constitutes partial contribution to the PIVERT (http://www.institut-pivert.com/sas-p-i-v-e-r-t/) and the ECORBIO on-going projects.