SEPAWA® CONGRESS 2022 

Speaker: Dr. Roman Morschhaeuser

Company: WeylChem Performance Products GmbH

Title: Soil Release Polyester - the Old New Chemistry

Abstract: Bio-based, environmentally friendly and renewable are just a few of the terms that describe the path to a sustainable way of life. Efforts are being made in almost all sectors to minimize the carbon footprint of our lifestyle – including the detergent industry. The durability of plastics, actually a positive material property, is not always an advantage. In the case of polymeric materials, this ultimately leads to the formation of microplastics, an unwanted but often unavoidable waste that is not visible but can now be found almost everywhere. The biodegradability of products is increasingly the focus of developments. This product feature will undoubtedly be essential in the future. The chemical or mechanical degradation of a product at the end of its life cycle is not always the optimal solution. It can often be advantageous to use end-of-life products as a raw material source for a new generation of items, even for different applications than before. Today we are introducing a new soil-release polyester that embraces this concept and is structurally based on recycled PET. One particular type combines superior cleaning performance with good biodegradability of water soluble polyesters and can be used in liquid applications as well as powder formats.