Published on June 4, 2014
Surfactants or surface active agents are largely defined as organic compounds which can help increase emulsifying, foaming and defoaming, wetting, and creating competence in wetting, dispersing and solvency. It is one of the most important ingrdient which is by and large found in various applications such as manufacturing of industrial goods, agriculture, food, home care & personal products, pharmaceuticals,oil & gas industries and is mostly found in emerging markets like China and India. Quite a few large players are included in the surfactants producing industry that also produce critical raw materials.
Surfactants are basically produced from petrochemical feedstock, where crude oil is the key ingredient of all the petrochemical products and basic petrochemical Ethylene and Benzene which is derived from it are rehabilitated to surfactant intermediates Ethylene Oxide (EO), Linear Alkylbenzene (LAB) and detergent alcohols.
The anionic and nonionic surfactants are the two largest chemical amid the surfactant classes, wherein anionic surfactant are sensitive to water hardness and one of the key ingredient among anionic surfactant is Linear Alkylbenzene Sulphonic Acid (LABS) which is a precursor of LAB, mostly used in laundry detergents and is widely produced at small to medium scale using mature technologies, easily available, cheap and effective. LABS are mostly produced from refinery products like Benzene and Kerosene. One of the leading suppliers of LAB technology UOP has made sturdy growth to make the process eco friendly, abridged energy consumption and enhanced selectivity. On the other hand nonionic surfactants are the fatty alcohol ethoxylates and both of its raw materials fatty alcohols (FA) and ethylene oxide (EO) can be sourced from renewably. These surfactants are well suited for cleaning purposes and are not sensitive to water hardness.
In India surfactant producers have conventionally grievance about the availability and price of EO, whereas the US producers have also faced same issues. Into the production of Monoethylene Glycol (MEG), global EO producers have consistently forward integrated for the use in the polyester value chain also most of the new EO projects seek to give out the budding market for MEG.
In much developed world, the surfactants markets have moderately risen and are one the matured markets of the world. For Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) in the oil & gas industry market, the latent size of the surfactant market might estimate from the fact that a single field may possibly devour as much as 15,000 tons of surfactants annually.
