| Abstract: | Sugar-based surfactants, such as sorbitan esters, sucrose esters, alkyl polyglycosides, and fatty acid glucamides gain increasing attention due to advantages with regard to performance, health of consumers, and environmental compatibility compared to some standard products. Sorbitan esters are well established products, which are mainly used as leather and textile auxiliaries or as emulsifiers for food at a volume of approx. 20,000 t/a. Sucrose esters are relatively hydrophobic products. The actual market size is estimated to be < 4,000 t/a – the main application being emulsifiers for food and cosmetics. Their use is still limited. Alkyl polyglycosides and fatty acid glucamides represent a perfect amphiphilic structure with excellent surface activity as well as solubility due to highly selective syntheses. For alkyl polyglycosides industrial processes have been developed in the past couple of years and a total capacity of ca. 80,000 t/a has been established. They are mainly used for cosmetic, manual dishwashing, and detergent applications. Fatty acid glucamides to date are exclusively used by one company in liquid and powdered detergents. The estimated production capacity is approx. 40,000 t/a. Comparable in their performance profile as co-surfactants, both products differ in their raw material base: whereas in the case of the fatty acid glucamides methylamine is incorporated in the product, alkyl polyglycosides are completely based on renewable resources. This, combined with very good performance and mildness, could be one reason why alkyl polyglycosides are the most successful sugar-based surfactants nowadays. Research to develop derivatives on this basis is still ongoing. |
