BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
4
Authors: Elke Weimann, Ute Griesbach, Stefan Busch, Ulrich Issberner, Jürgen Tropsch and Frederic Bauer Chemistry and occurrence Glycosides occur in nature in many variations; they are characterized by a sugar (carbohydrate) moiety which is bound to an alcohol via a glycosidic bond. This bond can be formed enzymatically or chemically in the presence of acidic cata- lysts. While glycosides (spelled with a “y”) may contain any carbohydrate moiety, such as glucose or fructose, glucosides (spelled with a “u”) are only formed from glucose. Examples for naturally occurring glycosides are saponin glycosides from licorice or steroidal glycosides from digitalis. In the body, Glucuronides, glyco- sides formed from glucuronic acid, take a vital part in the excretion of toxic sub- stances by increasing the toxins’ water solubility 2 . While the enzymatic pathway has made great progress during the last years 3 , the chemical synthesis of alkyl polyglucosides still is the most efficient and sustainable process on the industrial scale due to its ease and safety of production: The aldehyde-group of the car- bohydrate reacts selectively in the presence of an excess of fatty alcohol and a strong acid catalyst to form the alkyl glucoside and its higher homologues. The term “poly”glucosides is not very accurate and can be misleading: In fact, com- mercial APG®s are largely monoglucosides, the average degree of polymeriza- tion (DP) of BASF’s water-soluble APG®s is approx.1.5 4 . Consumer and industrial trends for sustainability are market drivers for APG®s Consumers increasingly want sustainable products that offer a reduced carbon footprint. Some people refer to this as the “green and clean” lifestyle trend, and it’s having a major impact on the Personal Care, the Home Care and the I&I industry. Many consumers want to know more about the ingredients in the cosmetics, detergents and cleaning products they buy, as well as their origin and environmental impact. Specifically, brands with a profile linked to “naturalness” are more popular than ever as they are perceived as being purer. APG®s perfectly fit the trend for natural ingredients BASF offers its 100 percent plant-based APG® line under the tradename Plan- tacare® in the cosmetics industry. These all-round sugar surfactants perfectly fit When the production plant for alkyl polyglycosides now owned by BASF was inaugurated in Duesseldorf in April 1995, a milestone was set. A trendsetting raw material was born together with a technology that has since decisively shaped the market for surfactants. Alkyl polyglycosides, also known by the BASF trade- mark APG® 1 , are a class of surfactants with excellent properties when it comes to environmental compatibility. They were first synthesized in the 1890s, but in- dustrial production of these mild and plant-based allrounders started only about a century later. Today, APG®s are used in a huge variety of products – from Personal Care to Home Care and Industrial and Institutional Cleaning (I&I). The BASF production plant for APG®s in Düsseldorf was initially constructed and run by Henkel KGaA. In 2000 the ownership moved to Cognis which was eventually acquired by BASF in 2011. Since the inauguration roughly 1,250,000 tons of APGs have been produced. That’s enough to produce 50 billion bottles of shower gel or shampoo containing 200 ml each. BASF’s APG®s are made from fatty alcohols derived from sustainable palm ker- nel oil or coconut oil, and glucose from wheat or corn (non-GMO sources in Europe). The all-round sugar surfactants are known for their excellent ecolog- ical and toxicological profile, proven mildness and functional properties. Beside good foaming and cleansing qualities, alkyl polyglucosides have excellent skin compatibility and are readily biodegradable. Therefore, right from the begin- ning, APG®s were used in Home Care formulations with skin contact, like dish- washing liquids and in Personal Care shower gels and shampoos. Nowadays, the applications are innumerable, ranging from e.g. face cleansing, oral care and all other segments in Personal Care to applications in other industries, ranging from the food industry to agrochemical applications. BASF offers the most compre- hensive product portfolio of pure APG®s, derivatives and compositions, also for easy formulations for highly concentrated liquid products in the detergent and cleaning industry. SOFW7Days - 11 November 2020 BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
Transcript of BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
Authors: Elke Weimann, Ute Griesbach, Stefan Busch, Ulrich Issberner, Jürgen Tropsch and Frederic Bauer
Chemistry and occurrenceGlycosides occur in nature in many variations; they are characterized by a sugar (carbohydrate) moiety which is bound to an alcohol via a glycosidic bond. This bond can be formed enzymatically or chemically in the presence of acidic cata-lysts. While glycosides (spelled with a “y”) may contain any carbohydrate moiety, such as glucose or fructose, glucosides (spelled with a “u”) are only formed from glucose. Examples for naturally occurring glycosides are saponin glycosides from licorice or steroidal glycosides from digitalis. In the body, Glucuronides, glyco-sides formed from glucuronic acid, take a vital part in the excretion of toxic sub-stances by increasing the toxins’ water solubility2. While the enzymatic pathway has made great progress during the last years3, the chemical synthesis of alkyl polyglucosides still is the most efficient and sustainable process on the industrial scale due to its ease and safety of production: The aldehyde-group of the car-bohydrate reacts selectively in the presence of an excess of fatty alcohol and a strong acid catalyst to form the alkyl glucoside and its higher homologues. The term “poly”glucosides is not very accurate and can be misleading: In fact, com-mercial APG®s are largely monoglucosides, the average degree of polymeriza-tion (DP) of BASF’s water-soluble APG®s is approx.1.54.
Consumer and industrial trends for sustainability are market drivers for APG®sConsumers increasingly want sustainable products that offer a reduced carbon footprint. Some people refer to this as the “green and clean” lifestyle trend, and it’s having a major impact on the Personal Care, the Home Care and the I&I industry. Many consumers want to know more about the ingredients in the cosmetics, detergents and cleaning products they buy, as well as their origin and environmental impact. Specifically, brands with a profile linked to “naturalness” are more popular than ever as they are perceived as being purer.
APG®s perfectly fit the trend for natural ingredientsBASF offers its 100 percent plant-based APG® line under the tradename Plan-tacare® in the cosmetics industry. These all-round sugar surfactants perfectly fit
When the production plant for alkyl polyglycosides now owned by BASF was inaugurated in Duesseldorf in April 1995, a milestone was set. A trendsetting raw material was born together with a technology that has since decisively shaped the market for surfactants. Alkyl polyglycosides, also known by the BASF trade-mark APG®1, are a class of surfactants with excellent properties when it comes to environmental compatibility. They were first synthesized in the 1890s, but in-dustrial production of these mild and plant-based allrounders started only about a century later. Today, APG®s are used in a huge variety of products – from Personal Care to Home Care and Industrial and Institutional Cleaning (I&I). The BASF production plant for APG®s in Düsseldorf was initially constructed and run by Henkel KGaA. In 2000 the ownership moved to Cognis which was eventually acquired by BASF in 2011. Since the inauguration roughly 1,250,000 tons of APGs have been produced. That’s enough to produce 50 billion bottles of shower gel or shampoo containing 200 ml each.
BASF’s APG®s are made from fatty alcohols derived from sustainable palm ker-nel oil or coconut oil, and glucose from wheat or corn (non-GMO sources in Europe). The all-round sugar surfactants are known for their excellent ecolog-ical and toxicological profile, proven mildness and functional properties. Beside good foaming and cleansing qualities, alkyl polyglucosides have excellent skin compatibility and are readily biodegradable. Therefore, right from the begin-ning, APG®s were used in Home Care formulations with skin contact, like dish-washing liquids and in Personal Care shower gels and shampoos. Nowadays, the applications are innumerable, ranging from e.g. face cleansing, oral care and all other segments in Personal Care to applications in other industries, ranging from the food industry to agrochemical applications. BASF offers the most compre-hensive product portfolio of pure APG®s, derivatives and compositions, also for easy formulations for highly concentrated liquid products in the detergent and cleaning industry.
SOFW7Days - 11 November 2020
BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
BASF APG® products show a very low carbon footprintAPG®s from BASF are readily biodegradable under aerobic and anaerobic con-ditions and are not bio-accumulative (Log POW <3). They are also suitable for use in products formulated according to sustainability standards including the EU Ecolabel, Nordic Ecolabel and Bra Miljöval, as well as for formulations with a natural or organic cosmetic label like COSMOS or NATRUE. BASF sources palm kernel oil certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Thanks to this and due to optimized production processes, the company’s APG® products show a very low carbon footprint. In fact, they have a footprint of greenhouse gas emissions of only around or even below zero CO2 equivalents in the Cra-dle-to-Gate approach when CO2-assimilation is considered, which means that according to this approach they are carbon neutral. The company’s production sites in the United States (Cincinnati), China (Jinshan) and Europe (Düsseldorf) ensure proximity to customers around the world and hence reduce the environ-mental footprint related to transportation. Moreover, APG® surfactants are cold processable which allows to save energy during production.
From smallholder farmers through to consumers: market transformation via cer-tificationPalm oil and palm kernel oil are extremely versatile, but they have been linked to deforestation and other environmental problems, as well as negative impacts on the people who live and work in communities affected by the palm value chain. That’s why it’s so important for BASF to know as much as possible about the palm-based materials the company buys – including how and where the fruit was grown. BASF’s approach is to work intensively with the palm supply chain, from smallholder farmers through to consumers, to address the consequences of using and selling products based on these materials. BASF supports market transformation via certification: The RSPO’s certification program for palm oil and palm kernel oil, for example, covers criteria ranging from eliminating de-forestation through to respecting the rights of workers and communities. BASF has been the first supplier who offered a complete range of APG®s in Europe produced from certified, sustainable palm-based raw materials in line with the RSPO Mass Balance standard for the cosmetics industry.
the trend for natural ingredients and various tests have confirmed the very low irritation potential of Plantacare® surfactants making them an ideal choice espe-cially for mild cleansing products with a high degree of skin compatibility. Added to this is another trend: “Sulfate-free” claims in Europe showed a strong growth in personal care in the last decade, with an increasing share in all analyzed new-ly launched products (10-18% in 2018), according to an analysis based on data sourced from Mintel/GNPD. BASF’s APG®s are perfectly suited for concepts al-ternative to sulfate-containing surfactant systems, such as Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS), and is ideal for concepts alternative to EO-/PEG-containing surfactants. Plantacare® 1200 UP is significantly milder than SLS, for example, and shows excellent foaming properties. Besides bath products, shampoo, facial cleanser or baby cleansing, one of the many examples of applications is related to tooth-paste for sensitive teeth.
In the field of Home Care and Industrial as well as Institutional Cleaning, BASF’s Glucopon® types convince by solving many performance related problems. Prod-ucts of the Glucopon® line combine the performance properties of modern sur-factants, with current and future demands for environmentally friendly solutions. For example, Glucopon® 650 EC, satisfies expectations both for perfect cleaning results and environmental responsibility. It is compatible with plastics, GHS (CLP) label-free, meets the requirements of various eco-labels (e.g. EU Ecolabel and Nordic Swan), is easy to process, very low foaming and suitable for use at high concentrations. As part of BASF’s Agnique® product range alkyl polyglucosides advance the performance of agrochemical formulations: by offering high com-patibility to salts and providing an excellent performance as efficient adjuvant in crop protection products. Furthermore, the Disponil® product line includes APG used as emulsifiers in emulsion polymerization processes. The product is applica-ble in various industries – such as coatings, adhesives and rubber industry – and shows a superior environmental profile. Disponil® meets the requirements of various eco-labels and qualifies as an emulsifier not releasing any formaldehyde during the polymerization process.
SOFW7Days - 11 November 2020
BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
BASF conducted a sustainability assessment for its entire relevant portfolio according to the Sustainable Solution Steering® method. The third-party audited method enables an evaluation and sustainable portfolio manage-ment according to sustainability criteria. As a result of this evaluation, the APG® types and blends in the care chemicals portfolio were rated as ac-celerator products, making a substantial sustainability contribution to the value chain.
Although APG®s were first synthesized over a century ago, these substanc-es are still a trendsetting raw material for the Personal Care, the Home Care and I&I industry as well as for industrial applications. Consumer expecta-tions for sustainability and natural ingredients will lead to new opportu-nities and innovative concepts with new blends and delivery forms in the respective application fields.
1. Owner: Cognis IP Management GmbH, 1991
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycoside
3. β-Glycosidases: An alternative enzyme based method for synthesis of alkyl-glycosides. Rather, M.Y. &
Mishra, S. sustain chem process (2013) 1: 7. https://doi.org/10.1186/2043-7129-1-7
4. Alkyl Polyglycosides, Technology, Properties and Applications. Hill, von Rybinski, Stoll, VCH 1996
BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
SOFW7Days - 11 November 2020
Figures:
Foam Structure (Pore Size):
BASF Plantacare® exhibits an excellent foaming behavior, and can improve the foam sensory of skin cleansing products in combination with other surfactants. Using SLES with e.g. BASF Planta-care® 818 UP instead of a typical betaine, enables a favorable foam texture, finer, more creamy and stable foam structures.
Foaming behavior:
BASF Plantacare® exhibits an excellent foaming behavior and can improve the foam sensory of skin cleansing products in combination with other surfactants.
Skin Compatibility:
BASF Plantacare® surfactants show a very low irritation potential and cause less skin dryness than other surfactants
Oral Compatibility:
BASF Plantacare® 1200 UP is considered as non- or minimally irritating. It is significantly milder com-pared to SLS and thus perfectly suited for gentle toothpaste concepts. Combinations of classical SLS with Plantacare® 1200 UP lead to milder formulations than SLS alone and can help reduce the irrita-tion potential of a toothpaste.
BASF APG® – A Sustainability Success Story
SOFW7Days - 11 November 2020
