Project description
Switching to sustainable surfactants
The world needs cleaner, greener and more sustainable solutions in business and production. These ‘future fit’ solutions also need to be competitive. Surfactants – the primary component of detergents – are omnipresent in numerous industrial sectors. From cleaning and personal care products to agrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, 17 million tonnes hit the market each year. An alternative is needed, and new technologies need to be developed towards that end. As part of the previous PoC PURE project, novel green surfactants were obtained by green and scalable synthetic pathways, resulting in two patent applications. Building on this, the EU-funded PureSurf project will introduce pioneering manufacturing concepts to produce innovative high-performance bio-based surfactants from underutilised renewable waste streams.
Objective
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.
Surfactants (17 million t/year market globally) are omnipresent in key industrial segments (detergents, personal care, coatings, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals) and 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.
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 ERC PoC PURE project, novel green surfactants were obtained by green and scalable synthetic pathways, resulting in 2 patent applications. Building on this, the PureSurf validation activities will include:
- Upscale at least one gemini anionic and one zwitterionic surfactant structures to 1 kg to validate their properties, using clean starting materials
- Upscale (to 5 kg, TRL5-6) at least one selected example using industrial waste streams
- Determine properties, ecotoxicity, biodegradability (also anaerobic) as well as performance in industrial applications
- Critically compare to existing surfactants, establish a business case and prepare an investor ready technology.
The PureSurf team, consisting of leading experts in green chemistry, engineering and business with strong industrial network, aims to establish a spin-off company and become frontrunner in bio-based surfactants.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.3.1 - The European Innovation Council (EIC) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
EIC - EICCoordinator
8010 Graz
Austria