Evonik To Build Industrial-Scale Site for Biosurfactants, Forms Strategic Partnership with Unilever

Evonik will begin building what it says is the world’s first industrial-scale facility for manufacturing sustainable rhamnolipid biosurfactants at its site in Slovakia. In addition, Evonik and Unilever have entered a strategic partnership for the supply of rhamnolipids for use in hand dish washing liquid and other home care applications.

Construction at the Evonik site in Slovenská Ľupča is scheduled for completion by the end of 2023. The new plant will meet the rapidly growing market demand for biobased, biodegradable surfactants, and will leverage the biotechnology platform of Evonik’s life sciences division, Nutrition & Care.

Evonik says the triple-digit million-euro investment will establish it as pioneer of high-quality, sustainable biosurfactants on a commercial scale.

Rhamnolipids are a class of biosurfactants which can be sustainably manufactured via a fermentation process using sugar as the main raw material. This use of biogenic carbon requires no petrochemical raw materials or tropical oils. Rhamnolipids are fully biodegradable, and their low-impact life cycle means they are a sustainable alternative to conventional surfactants. Their exceptional foam-forming properties make them suitable for use in household cleaners and personal care products like shampoos and micellar waters; they have a pleasant taste as well, which enables the formulation of oral care products like toothpaste without strong taste masking components, according to Evonik.

Evonik’s rhamnolipids—which the company contends are exceptionally high quality and provide it a unique position in the market due to the IP-protected manufacturing process.

“Rhamnolipids are an important part of our Clean Future initiative which has set the goal to exclude fossil carbon in all cleaning products by 2030. We want to make sustainability easy for everyone that uses our products. The partnership with Evonik helps move our brands away from fossil fuels without compromising on performance or affordability,”  Peter Dekkers, EVP Middle Europe, Unilever, said in a statement.





“This is a game changer for cleaning and personal care products. With this investment we are pioneering a new market and we believe that this will transform the way the world cleans. We are proud to collaborate with Unilever for a cleaner, more sustainable future,” noted Johann-Caspar Gammelin, president of Evonik’s Nutrition & Care division.

Partnership in Dish Care

Evonik and Unilever have partnered since 2019 to market a new hand dishwashing detergent based on Evonik’s rhamnolipids. The investment project at the Slovenská Ľupča site in Slovakia, and the latest strategic partnership reflect a culmination of these efforts and is the first step to providing industrial quantities of rhamnolipids to a broad range of customers.

Evonik and Unilever’s long-term agreement represents an important step for the commercialization of this biosurfactant technology, and it opens opportunities for other companies wishing to offer sustainable solutions to their customers, according to Unilever. 

The new plant in Slovakia is leveraging the biotechnology platform of Nutrition & Care and will support the growth ambition of the division and the Care Solutions business line, Evonik said.

Evonik Fermas GmbH situated in Slovenská Ľupča in Slovakia was established more than 25 years ago as Evonik’s scale-up and launch platform. Now a strategic location for Evonik’s biotechnology activities, the site is a key biotech hub for growing and developing Evonik’s offerings of system solutions. Expansion of the facility will benefit from the highly skilled biotechnology competencies of the local workforce.

With its well-established biosurfactant portfolio, the Care Solutions business line firmly cements its position as a sustainable specialties partner, while also further strengthening Nutrition & Care’s broad technology platform. The portfolio includes Rheance One for personal care applications and Rewoferm RL 100 for cleaning solutions.