More Sustainable Cleaning: Ceresana Sees Opportunities for Bio-Based Surfactants

KONSTANZ, Germany - Feb. 3, 2026 - PRLog -- Cleaning with the help of bacteria, fungi, or algae: Detergents and shampoos do not necessarily have to be made from climate-damaging crude oil or controversial palm oil. Surfactants can also be fermented by microorganisms from organic waste, for example. The latest, already second edition of Ceresana's biobased surfactants market report forecasts that the global market for these green chemicals will experience sales growth to more than USD 32 billion by 2034.

Clean Bioeconomy

Washing powders and liquid detergents consist to a large extent of surfactants, as these surface-active substances make it easier to remove dirt. In addition, surfactants can form a foam and enable the mixture of water and oil. Household detergents and cleaning products are by far the most important sales market for bio-based surfactants today, accounting for around 43% of global revenues. This is followed by personal care products and cosmetics as well as industrial cleaning agents. The versatile chemicals are used for a wide variety of applications, for example as emulsifiers in skin creams, as dispersing agents in paints and printing inks, as antistatic additives in plastics and textile fibers or as wetting agents in fertilizers and pesticides. There are surfactants in toothpaste as well as in cooling lubricants, extinguishing foam, disinfectants and contraceptives. One industrial application, for example, is ore extraction.

Sustainable Upcycling of Biomass

Bio-based surfactants not only reduce dependence on fossil raw materials, but also open up new recycling opportunities for organic residues, such as by-products from the paper industry and biofuel production or food waste from supermarkets. All surfactants have a water-repellent and a water-attracting part, both of which can be bio-based. Sugar surfactants can consist of coconut fatty alcohols and glucose, for example. The most important sugar surfactants at present are the high-foaming alkyl polyglycosides (APGs): non-ionic surfactants that can be produced purely on a plant basis. APGs are less sensitive to water hardness than anionic surfactants, effective at lower temperatures, skin-friendly, non-toxic, and biodegradable. With these environmentally friendly properties, APGs could become an alternative to linear alkylbenzene sulfates (LAS), the most widely used petrochemical surfactants today. Glycolipids are also considered a promising trend. Surfactants are also often mixed with other chemicals, for example with complexing agents in detergents, which are ideally also available as organic versions. Blends of petrochemical and biogenic chemicals are marketed as "bioattributed", "proportionately biobased", or "mass-balanced grades".

Further information on the new edition of the market study Biobased Surfactants – World (2nd edition): https://ceresana.com/en/produkt/biobased-surfactants-mark...