Today’s home care consumers are searching for sustainable solutions that maintain outstanding performance and are not harmful to the environment. These concerns are especially relevant as formulators work to create fabric care solutions that can remove greasy stains, work in cold washes and are made with natural ingredients. Syensqo continues to develop a range of soil release polymers and surfactants that meet the complex performance and sustainability needs of fabric care formulators and their consumers.
"Sustainable home care solutions are becoming more than just a trend. It is a consumer and market demand for brands to provide formulas that are effective at cleaning the home and gentle on the planet."
The Importance of Sustainability in Fabric Care Formulations
As consumers have increasingly shown that they are keen on eco-friendly home care products, formulators must create innovative solutions that promote sustainable cleaning, especially in fabric care. From reduced packaging to detergents that are efficient in cold washes, sustainable fabric care solutions must be versatile and extremely effective. To create truly sustainable fabric care formulations, manufacturers utilize ingredients that are circular in origin but maintain efficiency equal to or greater than synthetics. Formulators must find the ideal balance of surfactants, soil release polymers and other ingredients to promote sustainability without sacrificing performance.
Soil Release Polymers for Fabric Care
Consumers expect laundry solutions to get rid of the toughest, greasiest stains and want their whites to stay white throughout many washes. While soil release polymers represent a small fraction of the ingredients used in fabric care solutions, these agents play a vital role in providing an effective clean. Syensqo's range of soil release polymers is engineered with hydrophobic and hydrophilic components that remove tough stains in every wash and protect a variety of fabrics from future soils.
Syensqo's soil release polymers for fabric care offer impressive performance so formulators can reduce the percentage of synthetic surfactants and add only a small amount of soil release polymers to their formulations. Repel-O-Tex® SRP 6 is a powerful soil release polymer that is compatible with all powder formulations. Packed with our anti-redeposition technology for laundry solutions, this readily biodegradable polymer provides excellent performance against a broad range of stains in many different fabrics. Additionally, Repel-O-Tex® Crystal is engineered to meet the market shift towards liquid and compact formats. This soil release polymer comes in a liquid form, so formulators can easily integrate a powerful stain remover with anti-redeposition technology in any liquid solution.
Sustainable Surfactants for Fabric Care
As surfactants make up a significant percentage of laundry solutions, formulators interested in creating eco-friendly detergents must utilize circular or natural-based surfactants for home care that exhibit performance similar to synthetics. Naturally derived surfactants for fabric care must be able to maintain high-performance cleansing and cut grease in washes at low temperatures. Typically used surfactants may be developed from nonrenewable resources like petrol, while bio-based surfactants are created from circular sources from e.g. sugarcane, palm or bionaphtha.
Syensqo offers home care formulators innovative natural-based surfactants that match the impressive performance of synthetic surfactants without the environmental consequences. Our Rhodapex® ESB 70 NAT MB is a 100% natural SLES that behaves like a conventional SLES with equal performance. This alternative to synthetic surfactants is based on Ethanol made from sugarcane and Lauryl Alcohol derived from palm oil for natural and sustainable fabric care solutions. Additionally, Syensqo's team has created an excellent nonionic surfactant from palm oil and sugarcane in Rhodasurf® 6 NAT MB. This surfactant for ecolabel cleaning formulations is 100% natural in origin and ensures outstanding cleansing performance in sustainable fabric care solutions.
For more information on Syensqo's soil release polymers and sustainable surfactants for fabric care, contact our experts.
