SURFACTANTS
Figure 3- How infrastructure can move the triangle
of why sustainability cannot sensibly be reduced to a simple list of‘ good’ and‘ bad’ ingredients.
AOS can move too. Renewable and circular feedstocks are increasingly entering petrochemical infrastructure through certified mass-balance systems. Biobased alpha olefins are now commercially available through such approaches and AOS suppliers are already offering biomassbalanced variants. 3- 4
Mass balance should not be confused with physical segregation. It does not necessarily mean that every molecule in a particular drum originated from renewable feedstock. Instead, certified and conventional materials can be physically mixed while sustainability attributes are tracked and allocated through verifiable bookkeeping. 5
Nevertheless, it demonstrates something important. A conventional AOS that today sits relatively poorly on renewable feedstock content does not have to remain there forever. Infrastructure, feedstocks and production economics all change. As they do, the position of the chemistry within the Formulation Triangle changes as well.
The same principle applies to SLES. Renewable-ethanol routes to
ethylene oxide demonstrate that the ethylene oxide-derived portion of conventional ethoxylated surfactants does not have to remain dependent on fossil carbon. 1 Figure 3 shows how feedstock and production infrastructure can move established chemistries within the triangle without requiring an entirely new molecule.
Outlook
There is a temptation when discussing sustainable chemistry to imagine that eventually we will identify the‘ correct’ ingredients and the formulation problem will be solved. Formulation rarely works like that.
SLES became successful because it offered an unusually effective compromise between performance, cost and environmental attributes. Greater scrutiny of 1,4-dioxane changes that compromise. AOS can remove that particular issue but introduces different formulation and feedstock considerations. Renewable alpha olefins and renewable ethylene oxide can then move both chemistries again.
Where a material sits within the triangle today is therefore not necessarily where it will sit in five or ten years. For formulators and technical teams, that is arguably what makes the field interesting. If every cleaning formulation had been perfected 50 years ago, there would be very little left for us to do. Instead, regulation changes, manufacturing improves, new feedstocks become available and customer expectations move.
Our job is not simply to find the ingredient with the best sustainability claim, the lowest price or the highest performance in isolation. It is to keep reassessing the balance. Fortunately for those of us working in formulation, the triangle never really stops moving. ●
*- Also contributing to this article was John Heywood
References: 1: Scientific Design Company, Renewable Ethylene, Ethylene Oxide & Ethylene Glycol. 2: ECHA Weekly, 27 August 2025, Intention to Restrict 1,4-Dioxane Withdrawn. 3: Shell Chemicals, Solutions for Personal Care: Biobased Mass- Balance Alpha Olefins and Olefin Sulfonate Intermediates. 4: Stepan, Reawaken Your Natural Creativity at In-Cosmetics Global, 2 February 2026. 5: ISCC PLUS, System Document 208: Logos & Claims, Version 2.2, Section 5.1.3: Mass Balance.
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Ashley Quigley
TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
SURFACHEM LTD aquigley @ surfachem. com www. surfachem. com
36 SPECIALITY CHEMICALS MAGAZINE ESTABLISHED 1981