Bio-based sustainable SURFactants
TO foster GREEN industry

SurftoGreen aims to develop a new portfolio of fully bio-based surfactants for key applications.

By using renewable biomass-derived building blocks sourced from EU agricultural and forest side streams, the project seeks to create surfactants with over 95% bio-based content, overcoming the current performance and production throughput constraints. Thus, SurftoGreen seeks to provide environmentally friendly alternatives to conventional, petroleum-based products, thereby contributing to a more sustainable future.

The project will validate the effectiveness, sustainability and safety of its bio-based formulations in industrial demonstrators for home and personal care, textile enhancement, and agriculture.

Thanks to the collaboration between major market players and small businesses, SurfToGreen aims to gain significant market share and compete against existing products, to ensure a paradigm shift towards more environmentally friendly practices.

Funded by the Circular Bio-based Europe Joint Undertaking (CBE), a public-private partnership funded by the European Commission and the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC), the project will span 60 months (Oct. 2024 – Sep. 2029), with an allocation of about €9 million, and brings together 18 partners from 10 different countries.

Objectives

  • Identification and selection of EU-based resources from agricultural or forest industry sidestreams as renewable, safe, and sustainable building blocks meeting surfactant industry requirements.
  • Development of synthesis paths aligning with green chemistry principles to produce readily biodegradable, safe and sustainable surfactants with minimal CO2 impact
  • Integration of novel bio-based surfactants into formulations for major applications, such as home and personal care, cosmetics, textile, and agriculture.
  • Establishment of novel metrics to ensure safe-and-sustainable-by-design principles throughout the project for maximal industrial impact with minimal environmental impact.
  • Demonstration of the technological, social, environmental, and economic viability of at least six product solutions across three value chains, with scalable business plans for the worldwide commercialisation of at least three final demonstrators.

Consortium

  • Consorzio interuniversitario per lo Sviluppo dei Sistemi a Grande Interfase, Italy – Coordinator
  • CHT Germany Gmbh, Germany
  • Nouryon Surface Chemistry Ab, Sweden
  • Sofia University St Kliment Ohridski, Bulgaria
  • Universidad de Huelva, Spain
  • Univerzita Tomase Bati ve Zline, Czechia
  • Spiga Nord Spa, Italy
  • Aalto Korkeakoulusaatio Sr, Finland
  • Montinutra Oy, Finland
  • Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca Industriale - Airi, Italy
  • Adsorbi Ab, Sweden
  • Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia, Italy
  • Oleon Nv, Belgium
  • Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement, France
  • Procter & Gamble Services Company Nv, Belgium
  • Chalmers Tekniska Hogskola Ab, Sweden
  • Nikko Chemicals Co., Ltd., Japan – Partner
  • Shiseido Co., Ltd., Japan – Partner
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