SURFACTANTS
Past market shocks, such as Indonesia’ s temporary ban on palm oil exports in 2022, have already shown how quickly supply disruptions can ripple through the value chain. As highlighted in recent supply chain analyses, brands are increasingly prioritising feedstocks that reduce exposure to global volatility and support localisation strategies.
Captured CO 2 offers a stable, climate-resilient alternative. Unlike agricultural inputs, CO 2 can be sourced from industrial emissions, biogenic processes, or directly from the air, reducing exposure to geographic and seasonal variability.
Because Econic’ s process is compatible with existing ethoxylation infrastructure, it enables manufacturers to integrate
CO 2 locally without requiring costly overhauls. By substituting
CO 2 for traditional fatty alcohols, manufacturers can alleviate land pressures, mitigate biodiversity loss and improve supply chain resilience, all while cutting emissions and advancing circularity.
Application areas
Carbonate ethoxylates are versatile molecules with broad application potential across industrial and institutional( I & I), home care and personal care markets. Initial surfactancy screening shows that Recreaire surfactants show good performance across a range of different properties, such as formation of stable dispersions and emulsions with a range of common formulation ingredients, solubilisation of fragrance mimics with low foaming, as well as detergency with common anionic surfactants on a range of fabrics. Thus they have the opportunity to bring performance benefits to many of the products we use on a daily basis.
Looking ahead, Econic’ s partnership with Citrine Informatics will help accelerate the discovery of new molecules and formulations with novel performance characteristics. By combining Econic’ s catalyst technology with Citrine’ s AI-powered R & D platform, this collaboration is
expected to speed the development of surfactants tailored for even more application areas.
Outlook
For decades, the chemical industry has sought surfactants that could deliver both sustainability and performance at scale. By unlocking carbonate ethoxylates, Econic has created a platform innovation: a surfactant family with structural novelty, feedstock resilience, and verifiable environmental benefits.
We believe the future of surfactants will be defined by how well we integrate renewable carbon without sacrificing performance. Carbonate ethoxylates prove it can be done. ●
Simon Bennett
COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR FOR SURFACTANTS
ECONIC TECHNOLOGIES k + 44( 0) 1625 238 645 J contactus @ econic-technologies. com j www. econic-technologies. com
42 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981