🏭 Bright clothes only

Good morning. Today's edition goes over some specialty chemicals if you're into that sort of thing.

From the condenser:

· Perstorp's sustainable polyols

· BASF's clothing brightener

· POTD: laundry detergent.

Perstorp is making the choice for you

Swedish chemical company, Perstorp, has announced plans to no longer offer fully petroleum-based neopentyl glycol, trimethylolpropane, and pentaerythritol.

Some context:

It's not super apparent from their molecular names, but all of these polyols share the same base structure. As you go from neopentyl glycol to pentaerythritol you're just swapping methyl groups for hydroxyl groups. If that means nothing to you, just know that the number of hydroxyl groups changes what the molecule can be used for.

So, what are they used for?

Neopentyl glycol is probably most well-known for its use in the manufacture of birth control medication (it protects ketones as gestodene is synthesized). Trimethylolpropane mostly ends up in the coatings market via alkyd resins or other acrylates. Pentaerythritol has similar applications plus some special uses as a fire retardant.

Ok, so what's going on here?

All of these polyols can trace most of their roots to formaldehyde, which is a derivative of methanol, which is a derivative of methane, which we get from natural gas. For the last decade or so Perstorp has offered the polyols in a sustainable grade that is made in part from renewable natural gas—the plan is to only offer that grade from now on out. In any case, formaldehyde isn't the only feedstock used to make these polyols, so the sustainable part is going to fall between 20% to 100% depending on the molecule.

BASF wants to brighten your clothes

German chemical giant, BASF, has announced the completion of its optical brightener expansion in Monthey, Switzerland.

Optical brightener?

BASF is talking about a chemical called disodium 4,4'-bis(2-sulfostyryl)biphenyl (which they market as Tinopal CBS). This stuff absorbs UV radiation and re-emits visible blue light, which is useful for masking the yellow-ish appearance of natural fibers. So as you might imagine, BASF's Tinopal CBS is used in applications like detergents for your clothing (coincidentally, today's POTD is laundry detergent).

Catching you up:

This site expansion was first announced roughly three years ago and the intent was to do it in a step-wise fashion. BASF's announcement today is basically just closing the loop for us and confirming that all went as planned.

Zooming out:

You don't have to understand every bit of the value chain to get a sense of where Tinopal CBS is coming from. The biphenyl in the center of the structure is telling—benzene rings are plentiful in petroleum-based feedstocks, so nobody synthesizes them on an industrial scale. Going from a ring to a double ring and adding the rest of that functionality involves formaldehyde, trimethylphosphite, sulfonic acids, and plenty of other stuff.

Some more headlines:

• Chevron and Cummins are working on a natural gas engine with Walmart

• Evonik is making more sustainable emollients in Shanghai

• Honeywell and EnLink Midstream are teaming up for Gulf Coast carbon-capture projects

• Siemens just bought a predictive-maintenance software company called Senseye

• PPG showed off its new coatings for the pork industry at the world pork expo

Product of The Day:

Today, we're breaking down laundry detergent.

Laundry detergents are mostly a combination of multiple surfactants with a bunch of other functional additives mixed in. Some of those additives (in no particular order) include bulking agents, anti-caking agents, buffering agents, antifoaming agents, structurants, sequestrants, enzymes, fragrances, and dyes. You can check out an example of a mixture here that spells out the names of seven different sufactants (two anionic, three non-ionic, and two soaps) and alongside 20 other molecules with their respective function.

Given the number of ingredients it's not easy to work each supply chain backward, but if we limit the discussion to surfactants it can paint a decent picture. All surfactants have a hydrophobic end made from a fatty alcohol (check out oleochemicals) of with varying chain length (such as dodecanol), and a hydrophillic end that replaces the alchol with some other group (sulfate groups, like the one in SLS, are most common).

In case you're interested:

• Company History: Ever wondered where all of these big oil companies came from? Read about how Rockefeller's company gave birth to them all.

• Written Interview: Give this conversation featuring the CEO of Olin on the epoxy, acetyl, and chlorovinyl chains a read.

• Book: Maybe you've never heard of the Scientific Design company, but if you're in the industry, this one is worth a read.*

• Tip: Add Lustre to your browser so you can see price history and reviews before buying anything online.*

The bottoms: