Devoted to research in the area of ionic liquids - salts with melting points below 100 degrees centigrade - this text explores the promise of ionic liquids and sets the research agenda for the field. With a distinct bias towards actual industrial research and development applications, the book is virtually a manifesto for the new age of "Green Chemistry". The major industrial challenges to sustainability - the book's leitmotiv - are: reducing water use; increasing energy efficiency; reducing reliance of fossil fuel feedstocks; increasing use of renewables; including sustainability as a major economic criterion. Thereafter, the book goes on to consider precisely where ionic liquids can help in achieving this new vision, via new techniques, new processes, new reactions. The safety/health/environment properties of the ionic liquids are also considered. Finally, it is clear that there needs to be a major increase in the number of workers studying ionic liquids if this promise of a new Green Chemistry is to be achieved.
