Henkel signs deal with Shell for surfactants

Chemical and consumer goods company Henkel has signed a five-year deal with Shell Chemical to replace up to 200,000 tonnes of fossil feedstocks with renewable surfactants for the manufacture of its most popular laundry products.

The agreement would cover Henkel’s Persil, Purex and other brands sold in North America, the company said on 17 January.

The surfactants would be produced at

In Brief

USA: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has launched a demonstration tyre made from 90% sustainable materials.

Comprising 17 ingredients – including carbon black, soyabean oil, silica produced from rice husk waste residue (RHA silica) and recycled polyester – the new product highlighted Goodyear’s progress towards the launch of a tyre made from 100% sustainable material by 2030, the tyre giant said on 4 January. The tyre was currently at the demonstration stage and producing it at scale would require further collaboration with Goodyear’s suppliers to identify the volume of materials needed, the firm said.

Soyabean oil is used in Goodyear’s tyres to maintain rubber compound pliability in changing temperatures.

FRANCE: Belgian bio-polymer manufacturer Futerro announced on 8 December that it planned to build a polylactic acid (PLA) biorefinery in Normandy.

The 75,000 tonnes/year plant would be located in the industrial and port area of Port-Jérôme, in the Caux Seine region, on the Seine axis between Rouen and Le Havre. It would be subject to a preliminary consultation this year and, if it went ahead, would include a lactic acid unit to process raw materials, a PLA conversion unit and a PLA recycling facility.

the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Norco and Shell Geismar Chemicals facility in Louisiana, Henkel said.

As part of the agreement, from this year Shell would use up to 200,000 tonnes of renewable feedstocks in a combined manufacturing process (along with fossil feedstocks) to produce surfactants.

Using the mass balance approach, an independent accounting process would be applied allowing Shell to attribute the total tonnes of renewable feedstocks used in the process solely to Henkel. This mass balance process and attribution would be verified by an independent, third-party certification organisation.

“We are investing in our chemicals facilities, including on the US Gulf Coast, to scale up Shell’s sustainable chemicals capabilities,” Robin Mooldijk, executive vice president, Shell Chemicals and Products, said.