Belgian start-up AmphiStar has launched what it claims are the first fully upcycled biobased surfactants under the trade names AmphiCare and AmphiClean. These are produced “using clean biological conversion processes and derived from local, organic biowaste and side streams from agri-food processing”.

Evonik has manufactured the first product from its industrial-scale biosurfactants facility at Slovenská Lupca in Slovakia. This has thereby become the first plant anywhere in the world to produce sustainable rhamnolipid biosurfactants.

Slovenská Lupca produces rhamnolipids via a proprietary fermentation process that uses European corn sugar as the main raw material. They are fully biodegradable, with a low toxicological and ecotoxicological profile, as well as being entirely biobased.

Dow and Sasol both used this year’s SEPAWA Congress in Berlin on 25-27 October to launch surfactants that claim superior ecological profiles. In both cases, the products are based on collaboration with smaller, technology-based partners.

Dow developed EcoSense 2470 Surfactant with carbon recycling company LanzaTech Global, which recovers waste carbon then transforms into ethanol and on to surfactant ingredients. The company said that this is differentiated other biosurfactants and biobased surfactants in two ways: *

Locus Performance Ingredients (PI) and Veolia Water Technologies & Solutions have announced a collaboration that will be focused on “developing new biobased solutions tailored to address process, water and wastewater sustainability and performance challenges”. No further details were disclosed.

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.