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

Project Information

PureSurf

Grant agreement ID: 101058142

DOI

10.3030/101058142

Project closed

EC signature date 21 March 2022

Start date 1 May 2022

End date 31 October 2025

Funded under

• The European Innovation Council (EIC)

Total cost

€ 2 475 998,75

EU contribution

€ 2 475 998,00

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAET GRAZ
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - PureSurf (Bio-based surfactants from renewable waste streams for the circular economy)

Reporting period: 2023-05-01 to 2025-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Surfactants are centrally important for the functioning of our modern society, since these are essential ingredients in i.a. detergents, personal- & home care products, with a global production of over 20 Mt/y. The surfactants sector and associated industries, are facing a range of serious challenges related to raw materials supply, manufacturing practices, and severe shortage of sustainable high-performance products. Clearly, these industries are eager to embrace circular and sustainable concepts, while not willing to compromise on performance and profitability targets. Yet, currently available solutions are not optimal. About half still fully rely on petrochemicals, whereas only less than 5% can be considered fully-biobased (≥95% renewable carbon). Moreover, most bio-based solutions are either too costly or lack the performance needed for full customer satisfaction.
PureSurf, an EIC Transition scheme funded project, addresses the evident need for high performance surfactants sourced from locally available, renewable raw materials while meeting industrial meeting market requirements.
This project develops novel bio based surfactants via a modular synthesis platform transforming European bio based waste and side streams into readily biodegradable, high performance molecules. Targeted feedstocks include used cooking oils, vegetable oil derived building blocks, and biomass derived aromatic building blocks. The objectives are to replace petro and tropical oil inputs with regional feedstocks, to support EU strategic autonomy by reducing import dependence, deliver ready biodegradable surfactants with competitive performance, and establish a pathway to market through scale up and regulatory preparedness. The project integrates end to end validation from kilogram scale synthesis and process intensification to standardized performance testing and regulatory assessments. The pathways rely on iterative molecular design aligned with the principles of green chemistry. early market feedback, a standardized testing pipeline benchmarking against industrial references, external formulation trials for drop in feasibility, and toxicology and ecotoxicology assessments.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

PureSurf progressed from core fundamental scientific discoveries, gram scale synthesis to kilogram scale validation and pilot readiness, resolving biodegradability and toxicity constraints through molecular redesign. Three distinct platforms: amphoteric amine oxides, sulfonates (including double head/double tail ones), and amino acid based surfactants encompassing over 100 novel surfactants were designed, synthesised and entered the characterization workflow across physiochemical & performance parameters. The core design yielded amine oxide surfactants with biodegradability and improved aquatic safety; these were produced up to 1 kg in house, and the lead molecule was scaled to a 50 kg pilot batch externally. Selected amino acid based surfactants showed low concentration gel formation and self healing rheology; sulfonates structures showed a drastically increased emulsification performance.
Process development emphasized intensification and waste minimization through reagent/solvent optimization and simplified work ups. European bio based fatty acids and alpha olefins were integrated as hydrophobic unit, enabling substitution of tropical C12/C14 tails. SOPs were established for physicochemical testing (critical micelle concentration, surface/interfacial tension, wetting, foaming, emulsion stability) complemented by studies for REACH registration in the 1–10 t/y band.
Techno economic analysis for the lead amine oxide indicated feasible production below €10/kg under optimized conditions. A REACH testing roadmap was prepared and freedom to operate analyses found no critical issues, de risking synthesis, scale up, performance, safety and feedstock integration.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

On the research level, the project gave rise to several novel transformations and a plethora of novel chemical entities which were characterized extensively in terms of molecular structure and physical chemical properties. Especially regarding surfactant performance, several beyond stat of the art structures were found.
On the process level, innovative aspects include the judicious integration of renewable building blocks from lab to pilot scale.
External trials in eight commercial products verified drop in feasibility and superior cleaning. Lead amine oxides were significantly less toxic to daphnia and algae compared to the reference (less than a tenth / twentieth, respectively), potentially enabling clean label formulations.
A bio based disinfectant family delivered 23 single and 11 double headed/double tailed novel compounds; which matched or exceeded the performance of widely used references and approached state of the art antiseptics in standard assays of antimicrobial effectiveness (MIC, MBC) as well as antifungal, anti biofilm properties.
Indicative impacts span environmental, technical and strategic dimensions: reduced aquatic hazards and cleaner labels; dose efficient performance with strong interfacial, wetting and foaming properties and scalable synthesis; enhanced EU supply resilience and autonomy with viable paths to competitive production costs.
To ensure uptake beyond the project, extended ecotoxicology and chronic studies will be performed, compatibility studies and expanded demonstrations across home care, personal care and agrochemicals. Access to markets and finance is required for >1 t/y scale up, toll manufacturing and customer site pilots. Commercialisation and IPR actions will consolidate patents and protect formulation know how; internationalisation will prepare data for non EU regimes and assess local feedstocks. A supportive framework is essential: finalising REACH dossiers with GLP datasets, engaging in standardisation to recognise dose efficiency and clean label criteria, and using pilot regulatory route under PPORD allowing early scale-up and customer testing while full registrations progress.