Carbonate ethoxylates: Redefining surfactants with CO 2
Simon Bennett, commercial director for surfactants at Econic Technologies, introduces Recreaire
The demand for surfactants continues to rise across the home care, personal care, agrochemicals and industrial markets. World GDP growth projects that demand is expected to reach 22 million tonnes by 2025.
Yet formulators are being pulled in opposing directions. On one side, they need to cut greenhouse gas( GHG) emissions and reduce dependence on fossil or oleo-based feedstocks in a growing market. On the other, they are under pressure to deliver proven performance at scale, at a cost that consumers and industries can tolerate.
The surfactants industry is going to require a whole toolbox of sustainable solutions. There is no silver bullet, and the solution will come from the switch to products made from renewable carbonbased materials.
Tomorrow’ s industry leaders will formulate using biosurfactants, recycled materials and products made with CO 2 as sources of renewable carbon. Plentiful and affordable, CO 2 is the most resilient of all renewable carbon sources. Econic recently launched a new surfactant platform of carbonate ethoxylates, marketed as Recreaire. The carbonate is a structural lever, allowing the adjustment of surfactant properties at the molecular level( Figure 1).
Recreaire surfactants can incorporate up to 45 wt % CO 2 and achieve up to a 65 % reduction in
CO 2
-equivalent emissions. The technology can be used to produce
R-0
workhorse surfactants and tailored molecules using a proprietary catalyst platform that enables the direct incorporation of CO 2 into the ethoxylate backbone. The result is a new class of molecules that combines performance tunability with measurable reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Tunable chemistry
The industry demands that surfactants cannot just be‘ green’.
Conventional surfactants
0
Carbonate ethoxylates
Figure 1 – Structure of Recreaire & standard non-ionic surfactants
They also must perform equally or better than conventional options and be readily available. That is why Recreaire carbonate ethoxylates can be scaled to provide technical performance and sustainability, without compromise in large volumes.
Application areas like hospital floor care and food service sanitation illustrate why performance is nonnegotiable: unless sustainable
40 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981