Holiferm has revealed that the Mayor of Wirral, Jeff Green, opened its first commercial biosurfactant plant at Ocean Park in Wallasey, UK, on 16 February. Present were representatives of the global biosurfactant community, including people from Japan, Thailand, South Africa, Germany, France, Belgium and Australia.

Waste2Func, a European BBI-JU funded project, has been granted €6.7 million to build a technology platform. This will collect food waste from agriculture, food manufacturing, supermarkets, auctions and restaurants, and convert it via fermentation and purification into lactic acid and biosurfactants with applications in cosmetics, personal care and household care products. The project began in June 2021 and will end in November 2024, with a total budget of €13.965 million.

BASF has signed two distinct partnerships agreements to expand its position in biobased surfactants. These deals were made, the company said, in response to “the ever-increasing needs of consumers for sustainable, natural and biodegradable ingredients and actives”.

BASF has taken a majority stake in Allied Carbon Solutions (ACS), a Japanese maker of biomass-derived surfactants. This includes an exclusive technology cooperation, a commercial agreement and joint product development in sophorolipids, a class of glycolipids, for use in surfactants with targeted performance.