Marketing Manager for Surfactants for Homecare Cepsa Quimica Madrid, Spain
Abstract: There is an increasing trend in the laundry industry looking for more sustainable detergents to reduce their environmental impact and minimize climate change. But performance is sometimes an issue for sustainable ingredients.
NextLab is the first linear alkylbenzene developed from renewable and recycled raw materials, to help formulators create more sustainable detergents without sacrificing performance. To obtain this new family of products, production process of traditional linear alkylbenzene was adapted to incorporate sustainable raw materials. A Mass Balance approach is used as a Chain of Custody method, blending and co-process fossil raw materials with sustainable ones and tracking them throughout the entire production process while recorded in an auditable bookkeeping.
Leading Home Care Companies have challenging targets on this matter, and Cepsa Quimica has developed a Multi-Generational Plan to evaluate different technologies and identify key projects to develop sustainable products to address customers’ needs.
NextLab portfolio includes three main types of products:
•NextLab – R is a LAB produced with renewable raw materials, with a CO2 reduction between 25% to 35% (*) compared to its fossil counterpart and has an RCI (Renewable Carbon Index) of 67% (corresponding to the version containing sustainable alkyl-chain).
• NextLab – Low carbon, produced with renewable energies, reducing direct emissions during the production process. It has an estimated CO2 reduction between 10% to 20% (*).
• Finally, still under development, NextLab – C, the LAB that will be produced with recycled raw materials.
NextLab have the same quality and properties expected by the market. LAB is the raw material of linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), the most consumed surfactant worldwide in household applications. No other surfactant gathers the combination of performance, flexibility, processability and easy formulation.
(*) based on preliminary Craddle to Gate data from the comparative Life Cycle Assessment underway.
