Powerful surfactants from renewable raw materials

There is already an increasing interest in products based on components that are part of the human metabolism, ideally made completely from renewable raw materials and easily biodegradable. Therefore, products based on amino acids, carbohydrates and fats are in the spotlight. The ‘juicy’ task for the chemical industry is to develop personal care products with this profile but without loss in performance in comparison to powerful petrochemical products. 

For Zschimmer & Schwarz this demand led to the development of surfactants which match these requirements as closely as possible. In the following we will guide you through the products that are fulfilling most or even all of the requirements mentioned above.

The ‘green’ tool box of Zschimmer & Schwarz consists of the building blocks of fats – glycerol, fatty acids and their derivatives – and amino acids including their natural derivatives. In our portfolio there are two product series which are completely based on these natural building blocks: The Protelan- and the SebumolSeries. The chemical linkages between the hydrophobic part and the hydrophilic part of the surfactant molecule in the ProtelanSeries are amide bonds, whereas in the surfactants of the Sebumol-Series they are ester bonds. Both bonds are also extensively ‘used’ by nature and can be cleaved by nature’s enzymes (peptidases and lipases). As a result all surfactants of the Protelan- and the Sebumol-Series are easily biodegradable.