Reinventing Surfactants for Sustainability
The new 100 percent bio-based and 100 percent renewable range of non-ionic surfactants is the widest commercially available and is certified to meet the criteria of the USDA BioPreferred® program (www.biopreferred.gov). The new ECO range is the result of a significant investment made by Croda in its Atlas Point manufacturing site in New Castle, Delaware to construct an ethylene oxide plant using naturally derived feedstocks. The first of its type in the United States, the completed plant supports the evolution of Croda’s product line, reinventing many of its active emulsifying agents to meet the increasing demand for more sustainable products without sacrificing performance.
Sold under an ECO brand prefix across Croda’s market sectors, these ingredients will lead to the creation of both new and re-imagined products, including: cosmetics and hair care products for the personal care industry; lubricants and coatings in the automotive industry; air- and surface-care products in the cleaning industry; as well as drilling fluids in the oil industry. The range offers a wide variety of benefits including emulsification, detergency and cleansing, and solubilisation, while delivering mild and stable formulations.
“At Croda, we have a history of innovation and have been the driving force behind the creation of many disruptive chemistries,” said Sandra Breene, President of Personal Care and North America. “This combined with our long history of sustainability and sustainable reporting synergises our strengths and delivers true progression in sustainable chemistry for our customers and the consumers they serve. We are pleased to be able to offer such a wide range of 100 percent bio-based and 100 percent renewable ingredients to meet the needs of formulators and companies seeking to deliver more sustainable options without a compromise in performance or the need for extensive research and development time, adding to development cycles. We can offer the solution today for our customers to launch tomorrow.”
Heritage Chemistry Becomes a Sustainable Future
Initially invented and manufactured at Atlas Point, the iconic Tween™ range of non-ionic surfactants set the standard in the 1940’s for delivering effective emulsification, the stable combination of oil and water, in a formulation. This heritage line was technically evolved to create the equally iconic Brij™ and Myrj™ product ranges, to meet a demand for more complex formulations.
With the ECO range, Croda has further evolved the market leading products, creating a step change by offering bio-based and renewable options that reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and lower the carbon footprint of these ingredients versus their petroleum-based alternatives. By simply replacing a petroleum-derived ingredient with its renewable variant, a significant improvement in bio-based content and renewability can be achieved without a sacrifice in product performance.
Track Record of Sustainability Locally and Worldwide
Croda has a longstanding commitment to investing in sustainability and innovation, celebrating ten-years of reporting progress in its 2017 sustainability report, with the investment in the new ECO plant to support production of the ECO range of surfactants being the most recent at Atlas Point. Prior to this, Croda had invested over $10 million in renewable energy at the site, using landfill gas and solar panels for its energy requirements, which reduced Croda’s annual CO2 emissions by 11,600 tons. These projects combined have generated more than 60 percent of the site’s energy.
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