Bio-based surfactants from renewable waste streams for the circular economy

Introduction

With climate and environmental concerns topping the global agenda, industries across all sectors are under tremendous pressure to rapidly change their existing fossil-based practices by shifting toward cleaner, greener, more sustainable (in one word: future fit) solutions in business and production, while maintaining economic competitiveness internationally.

Market Overview

Surfactants (17 million t/year market globally) are omnipresent in key industrial segments such as:

• Detergents
• Personal care
• Coatings
• Agrochemicals
• Pharmaceuticals

Companies are actively looking to shift toward bio-based alternatives while maintaining product performance. Surprisingly, the valorization of renewable waste streams occurring in large quantities for making novel surfactants has not been adequately exploited so far. The reason for this is the lack of fundamentally new technologies in this area.

Project Goals

With the credo: Superior performance and clean conscience, PureSurf introduces ground-breaking manufacturing concepts to produce novel high-performance bio-based surfactants from currently underutilized renewable waste streams. In the ERC PoC PURE project, novel green surfactants were obtained by green and scalable synthetic pathways, resulting in 2 patent applications.

Validation Activities

Building on this, the PureSurf validation activities will include:

1. Upscaling at least one gemini anionic and one zwitterionic surfactant structure to 1 kg to validate their properties, using clean starting materials.
2. Upscaling (to 5 kg, TRL5-6) at least one selected example using industrial waste streams.
3. Determining properties, ecotoxicity, biodegradability (also anaerobic), as well as performance in industrial applications.
4. Critically comparing to existing surfactants, establishing a business case, and preparing an investor-ready technology.

Team and Vision

The PureSurf team, consisting of leading experts in green chemistry, engineering, and business with a strong industrial network, aims to establish a spin-off company and become a frontrunner in bio-based surfactants.