Belgian personal care ingredient maker AmphiStar has revealed the findings of a cradle-to-gate lifecycle analysis (LCA) study into the sustainability advantages of its AmphiCare and AmphiClean biosurfactants over traditional surfactants.
The study found upcycled AmphiStar biosurfactants offer at least a fourfold decrease in global warming potential (CO2 equivalents/kg surfactant while reducing the pressure on water reserves by 18 times and land use by seven times.
In addition, AmphiStar’s impact on human health was found to be 5.5 times lower than a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalents.
When impact on biodiversity is taken into account, AmphiStar biosurfactants are associated with a 15 times lower impact compared to a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.
“The LCA study evaluated the environmental impact of the product from the extraction and pretreatment of raw materials such as locally-sourced agri-food waste, through production and to the factory gate,” the company said.
“It confirms that AmphiCare and AmphiClean sophorolipids - produced by upcycling bio-based waste and agricultural byproducts through a biological microbial fermentation process (no harsh chemistry involved) - offers unprecedented sustainability and health benefits to consumer product manufacturers, producing a fraction of the emissions and requiring a fraction of the resources,” it added.
