40 FUNCTIONAL INGREDIENTS 16-29 ■ 30-44 ■ 45 Plus ■ Total ■
Which of the following are most important to you when buying personal care products? Consumers choosing science certified ingredients or formulations their top three
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
Britain Great
The USA
China France Brazil Germany Figure 5: Preference for science certified ingredients across countries
on the mass balance approach fill the gap in the market for ingredients that can be made at large scale combining high functional performance and strong sustainability credentials. Mass balance accounting works through the
principle that a chemical manufacturer receives credits for each bio-based carbon atom fed into its cracker. It can assign those credits (on a mass balance basis) to a portion of the plant’s output containing the same number of carbon atoms and to final products of the manufacturing process. The mass balance process (Figure 7) is
certified by an independent third-party such as (but not limited to) ISCC PLUS, REDcert and SCS Global Services which helps provide assurance, transparency, and credibility for sustainability claims. Either biomass feedstocks such as soybean oil, ethanol from corn or bio-circular sources/feedstocks such as used cooking oil and tall oil (the latter from the wood pulp industry) can be used. Both options replace conventional feedstocks without compromising quality or performance. The bio-circular feedstocks offer lower PCF end products. With this approach personal care product
manufacturers can customize their formulations based on their business and product marketing goals, while meeting their stringent performance
Polar hydrophilic (water-loving) head
Non-polar hydrophobic (water-hating) tail
Figure 6: Schematic of a surfactant molecule with the two parts of its chemical structure
TABLE 2: HOW BIO-BASED MASS BALANCE SURFACTANTS OFFER PERFORMANCE, SCALE AND COST ADVANTAGES AS WELL AS BEING SUSTAINABLE
Reference: Petrochemical (mainstream)
Feedstock:
Process technology
Examples Advantages Fossil Chemical AE, AES, LAS, AOS# Performance, cost, scale
Bio-based, mass balance (mainstream)
Corn, sugarcane, rapeseed oil,
soybean oil, used cooking oil, other Chemical
AE, AES, LAS, AOS# Performance, scale, Drop-in
replacement to fossil-based, PCF, Uses exisiting downstream chemical processes and plants
Challenges Fossil-based, PCF* Ramp up of volumes at outset Performance, cost, scale Potential deforstation,
not locally sourced, PCF can be variable
PCF*
Not locally sourced,
performance, cost
and environmental (including biodegradability and ecotoxicity) criteria.
Bio-based long-chain olefin and alcohol ingredients Several suppliers manufacture long chain olefins and alcohols that are often derivatized and used in household and personal care products. This is discussed below citing Shell Chemicals’ processes and products as examples.
PCF*
Performance, cost scale
* PCF is Product Carbon Footprint, # AE, AES, LAS, AOS is alcohol ethoxylate, alcohol ethoxy sufate, liner alkyl benzene sulfonate and alpha olefin sulfonate
Partly bio-based (mainstream)
Palm kernel oil,
coconut oil (+fossil EO) Chemical
AE, AES
Bio-based (niche)
Sugars, fatty alcohols
Chemical
Alkyl Poly Glucoside,
Sorbitan ester
Biosurfactants (niche)
Sugars, lipids +
bacteria, yeast, other Biological
Rhamnolipids, sophorolipids
Bio-based mass balance alpha olefins and derivatives In the industry ethylene is commonly used as the building block to make high-purity, linear alpha olefins that can then be easily functionalized (near the point of unsaturation on the carbon chains) to make ingredients used in skin care/ cosmetics, fragrance, and cleansing. The carbon chains are even numbered as the olefins are built up in C2 (ethylene) units. Examples are shown in Figure 8.
The high linearity of alpha olefins for
sulfonation (the cleansing ingredients in Figure 8) has two advantages: 1. Due to the ease of functionalization,
reaction of the alpha olefins with SO3 followed by neutralization with sodium hydroxide gives a high %yield of reaction and results in an AOS product with good colour (the whiter the product the better for personal care use), good powder flowability (it is often supplied in a 90%+ active matter form as powder/flakes), and low sultone level. 2. High linearity combined with longer chain
Figure 7: Schematic showing the principles of the bio-based and bio-circular mass balance system from feedstock to final products (ingredients in personal care products)
PERSONAL CARE March 2024
lengths, C14 to C18, gives an AOS surfactant that has a lower oil/water interfacial tension and water/air surface tension, and these two properties translate into superior cleaning and foaming performance respectively. The AOS structure (Figure 9) is also a mild-to-skin surfactant making it very suitable for personal care products. Bio-based mass balance long chain alcohols and derivatives
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