The global enzymes market size was USD 8.18 billion in 2015 and is expected to witness significant growth over the next eight years on account of its increasing application in detergents, pharmaceuticals, and food & beverages. The use of enzymes for laundry was introduced in the early 1900s. Since the latter part of the century, temperature stable bacterial enzymes (proteases, amylases, lipases and cellulases) are applied because of their stain removing capacity. Most of the industrial enzymes are currently produced by submerged fermentation of genetically modified microorganisms (GMO). The worldwide enzyme market is led by three large companies.
The effect of incorporating enzymes is that less detergents are requires for the laundry product and lower washing temperatures may be employed with consequent savings in energy consumption.
The demand for sustainable and organic products for daily use is steadily increasing which caused by the rising awareness of European consumers towards issues such as sustainability and environmentally friendly processes without the use of GMOs.
The retail sales of organic products in EU-28 reached € 27.1 billion in 2015 of which Germany has the biggest market share. The label "organic" according to Council regulation (EC) nº 834/2007 is meant for food products only, while the Ecocert standard is deemed for articles for daily use, e.g. laundry products. The Ecocert standard is not prohibiting the use of GMO. Convinced buyers of organic products are refusing GMO which is the reason for the absence of enzymes in most of the eco-laundry products. Ironically, this fact is contradictory to the idea of sustainable, organic products, because more detergents and higher temperatures are required for a satisfying cleaning performance.
Within the SSF feasibility study, Naturstoff-Technik GmbH (NST) has successfully exploited the results of a previous EU Project, namely the economic production of an organic, non-GMO, granulated enzyme product for detergent application by automated Solid-State-Fermentation at industrial scale using organic, renewable resources as substrate. NST's product will have at least proteinase, amylase and lipase activity and is certified according to Council regulation (EC) nº 834/2007 on organic production and labeling of organic products. The result of this feasibility study shows that NST SSFENZYMES product will enable the production of organic laundry products according to the expected new BNN guidelines in 2018.
NST will soon be able to provide a granulated enzyme product to be sold B2B to the European producers of Eco-laundry products fulfilling the future BNN guidelines in 2018. In a first step, NST will be addressing producers which are certified according to the Ecocert-Standard.
The well-established SME NST is carrying out large-scale processing and refinement of ingredients for the food and cosmetic industry for more than 30 years. Although the European food and cosmetic industry is a constantly growing market, having only one branch as business pillar seems to be too risky for an SME on the long-term. In order to stay competitive in the future, NST is eager to step into a new business area by selling an own product.
NSTs organic enzyme product will have clear advantages over most of the current enzyme producers who are using submerged fermentation:
• The product has organic label.
• Therefore it will be applicable in organic detergent products following the Guidelines for ecological detergents and other cleaning agents (Bundesverband Naturkost Naturwaren, 21st January 2016)
Additionally, the application of enzymes in organic detergents will reduce the use of surfactants and it will improve the wash performance of the detergent at lower temperatures which was not possible for such products as they simply did not apply enzymes.
Incorporating the SSFENZYME product in eco-certified laundry products will result in the state-of-the-art properties of such laundry products
• improved product properties,
• higher stain removing performance
• lower temperatures
• less detergents
• non-GMO, fulfilling the BNN standard 2018
• lower production costs according to
• less surfactants and lower washing temperature required for satisfying stain removal
• resulting reduced production costs for a more effective end product
which will significantly strengthen the competitiveness of the European Market for Eco-, and furthermore, organic laundry products.
NSTs enzyme product will be sold B2B will enable their customers the production of organic laundry products which will fulfill the expected new BNN guidelines for organic products for daily use in 2018.
