Striving towards zero environmental impact
The end-of-life management pillar aims to reduce the environmental impact of products after their use. When materials can be recovered and recycled, the pillar supports these processes using biotechnology as an enabler (for example, enzymatic recycling). This contribution helps the reduction, recycling, and reuse of products to sustain the environment for future generations.
In the instances where products cannot be recovered or recycled, as is the case for consumer applications such as shampoos and detergents which are normally washed away down drains, the biodegradability of these ingredients is essential to ensure they leave no trace in the environment. As a leading supplier of specialty ingredients that bring improved performance to liquid formulations in Agrochemical and Home and Personal Care markets, Syensqo is addressing the key challenges to deliver zero-pollution products.
Ultimately biodegradable: leaving no trace in the environment
Biodegradation corresponds to a measure of the extent to which an organic substance can be removed from the environment by microorganisms. Ultimate biodegradation of a substance corresponds to the complete consumption of the substance by microorganisms transforming them into carbon dioxide, water, biomass, and minimal by-products.
Syensqo is striving towards developing rapidly and ultimately biodegradable solutions that leave no trace in the environment using OECD biodegradation testing methods such as OECD301F as a tool to assess the readily and ultimately biodegradable potential of its products.
Biodegradable-by-design program
Polymers in liquid formulations are a particularly challenging class of ingredients when it comes to enabling their biodegradability. As they are large macromolecules, their ultimate biodegradability can be very slow and many products based on acrylate chemistry today do not meet challenging biodegradability specifications.
The biodegradables-by-design program is a worldwide project involving chemists, microbiologists, physical chemists, application testing, data sciences, and many more, with 2 main focus areas: developing new polymer chemistries and developing leading capabilities to assess the biodegradability of our products. Through a deep understanding of the biodegradation mechanisms of polymers, we aim to develop the next generation of readily and ultimately biodegradable products that leave no trace in the environment.
Biodegradable Agrochemical formulation ingredients
We are developing next-generation biodegradable dispersants for liquid and solid crop protection formulations. Suspension concentrates are homogeneous and stable dispersions of solid pesticides used by farmers to spray onto crops to deliver phytosanitary benefits. Today, common dispersants that are used are based on non-biodegradable polymers. Our aim is to keep the same performance benefits of these adjuvants but develop biodegradable solutions. We are also addressing the seed coatings market's need to develop microplastic-free solutions by delivering biodegradable solutions.
High-performance Beauty Care
Today, high-conditioning polymers in hair care applications are not biodegradable. We are focusing our expertise and resources on addressing this issue. The goal of the project is to develop biodegradable conditioning polymers which can deliver high conditioning benefits for damaged to highly damaged hair.
Biodegradable Home Care performance polymers
Many of the performance polymers used in home care applications such as cleaners and detergents are not readily biodegradable. We aim to address this issue by developing a new range of biodegradable polymers that bring surface modification properties, detergency, and much more.
Closing the circularity loop
Syensqo's major focus today is to close the loop of circularity by producing ingredients for liquid formulations from renewable raw materials, transforming them into value-added products which when released into the environment are ultimately biodegradable, helping to regenerate the environment and recreate renewable raw materials.
A growing portfolio of biodegradable polymers
Discover Naternal™, our range of natural guar polymers, Repel-O-Tex®, a readily biodegradable soil release polymer, and AgRHO® DR 2000, a guar-based adjuvant for agrochemical formulations.
A multidisciplinary project with advanced labs and capabilities
We are creating a global, top-notch network of microbiology labs in Asia Pacific (Shanghai), Brazil (Paolinia) and Europe, (Lyon) to master biodegradability testing of our products and use this to drive new innovations in polymer chemistry development.
