Surfactants
Unilever (London, U.K.; www.unilever.com) has partnered with LanzaTech, Inc. (Skokie, Ill.; www.lanzatech.com) and India Glycols Ltd. (Noida, India; www.indiaglycols.com) to produce a surfactant made from industrial carbon emissions instead of from fossil fuels. The shift in production utilizes biotechnologies and a newly configured supply chain between the three partners, who are working together for the first time.
The three-stage process marks the first time a surfactant made using captured carbon emissions will come to market in a cleaning product. First, LanzaTech uses biotechnology to capture waste industrial emissions at its Beijing Shougang LanzaTech plant in China and converts these emissions to ethanol. India Glycols then converts the ethanol into ethylene oxide, a key feedstock to make surfactants at its site in India. Unilever then uses the surfactant in the new OMO (Persil) laundry capsules, manufactured at its Hefei factory in China. The new laundry capsule was launched in China on April 22nd, World Earth Day.