Market and product

Compiled by Bao Hien 

Surfactants — the core ingredient that determines how well any detergent or cleaning product actually cleans — have traditionally been made from petroleum or palm oil, raising concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on tropical rainforests. Two independent research efforts, one in the United States and one in Germany, are pursuing the same goal of replacing petrochemical feedstocks with bio-based materials, but via entirely different chemical routes.

Approach one: linking sugar and plant oil into a new molecule

A research team originating from a chemistry lab at the University of Minnesota has developed a chemical synthesis technology called oleo-furan sulfonate (OFS), which combines two bio-based components: furan — a compound extracted from sugars that make up roughly two-thirds of plant biomass by volume, typically sourced from agricultural byproducts — and plant oil, which can be coconut, soybean, or algae oil depending on the intended use. According to the development team, the initial finding was somewhat unexpected: bio-based surfactants synthesized this way were not merely comparable to, but in some tests actually outperformed, their petroleum-derived counterparts.

The latest commercial product from this approach, launched in March 2026, comes in two variants: an anionic version offering up to 30% longer-lasting cleansing and foam compared with conventional surfactants, and a non-ionic version suited to higher-viscosity formulations. Both are fully bio-based and free of sulfates, nitrosamines, and 1,4-dioxane — impurities often flagged for safety concerns in the cosmetics and cleaning industries. On environmental impact, the developer reports a 65-75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared with equivalent petrochemical surfactants. The technology has already been demonstrated at half-ton production scale and recently completed a commercial-scale sulfonation trial with a chemical processing partner.

Approach two: using microorganisms to "grow" the active molecule directly

A different approach, pursued by an applied research institute in Germany, skips chemical synthesis altogether in favor of microbial fermentation to produce bio-based surfactants in the glycolipid family — molecules consisting of a hydrophilic sugar head group bonded to one or more hydrophobic fatty-acid tails. The microorganisms used belong to the Ustilaginaceae yeast family, cultivated in bioreactors with continuous monitoring of pH, temperature, oxygen concentration, and substrate levels.

Feedstock inputs for the fermentation process are highly flexible: they can be sugar extracted from straw and wood residues, domestically grown rapeseed oil, or even fat sourced from insect-refining facilities. The two main glycolipids developed achieve yields of over 20 grams per liter and up to 50 grams per liter respectively, with purity above 95% — a level considered viable for moving toward industrial application. A notable distinguishing feature of this class of compounds compared with conventional surfactants is that, beyond their cleaning function, some microbial glycolipids also exhibit antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral properties — opening the door to dual-purpose applications combining cleaning and antimicrobial action for dishwashing liquids and household cleaners.

Comparing the two technological philosophies

While both technologies share the goal of eliminating petrochemical origins, they reflect two distinct engineering philosophies.

The chemical-synthesis approach (linking furan with plant oil) has the advantage of precise molecular structure control, allowing performance in cleaning and foaming to be optimized to compete directly with existing petrochemical surfactants, while also being able to leverage some existing chemical manufacturing infrastructure (such as sulfonation processes). By contrast, the microbial fermentation approach has an edge in feedstock flexibility — able to switch between various agricultural and forestry byproducts depending on local supply availability — and produces molecules with added biological functions (antimicrobial activity) that conventional synthetic surfactants lack, though it requires more complex fermentation process control to achieve stable yield and purity at large scale.

A shared challenge: scaling up

Both technologies currently remain at the demonstration stage — a few hundred kilograms to half a ton per batch for the chemical-synthesis route, and 75-300 liter bioreactors for the microbial fermentation route. This is still a considerable distance from the tens-of-thousands-of-tons-per-year scale at which the global cleaning products industry operates. Whether these technologies can scale up production while remaining cost-competitive with petrochemical surfactants — whose manufacturing processes have already been optimized over several decades — will determine whether they move from the lab into mainstream consumer products, or remain confined to premium, eco-conscious market segments.