AmphiStar announces findings of its life cycle analysis for upcycled biosurfactants

These results demonstrate unprecedented sustainability opportunities to the home and personal care industries as they urgently seek ways to achieve net zero emissions, as well as to other sectors for which surfactants are key materials, including agri-, food and feed, and other industrial applications.

The Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) study was performed cradle to gate: Evaluating the environmental impact of the product from the extraction and pretreatment of raw materials such as locally-sourced agri-food waste, through production and to the factory gate. It confirms that AmphiCare® and AmphiClean® sophorolipids - produced by upcycling bio-based waste and agricultural byproducts through a biological microbial fermentation process (no harsh chemistry involved) - offer unprecedented sustainability and health benefits to consumer product manufacturers, producing a fraction of the emissions and requiring a fraction of the resources. The LCA also demonstrates that AmphiStar biosurfactants offer a clear advantage in biodiversity preservation.

Key LCA Findings:

• Climate change: AmphiStar biosurfactants reduce global warming: they are associated with a significant decrease in CO₂ equivalents/kg biosurfactant produced i.e. 0.74kg of CO₂ equivalents/kg Amphistar biosurfactants produced, compared to 3.05kg for non-upcycled sophorolipids (a 4-fold decrease), 4.58kg for synthetic Sodium Laureth Sulphate (an 6-fold decrease) and 6.92kg for Amine Oxide (a 9.5-fold decrease). All the above values are excluding biogenic CO₂ uptake.

• Water deprivation: Considering regional water scarcity factors, the production of 1 kg of AmphiStar biosurfactants reduces the water deprivation potential by 18 times compared to a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.

• Land use: When a range of factors impacting land use are evaluated, including change in land use and effects on the health and ecosystems using the land, AmphiStar biosurfactants are attributed 7 times lower land use than a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.

• Human health: When a range of factors related to human health, such as disease, injury, and premature death are taken into account, the impact on human health for AmphiStar biosurfactants is found to be 5.5 times lower than a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.

• Ecosystem: When impact on biodiversity is taken into account, AmphiStar biosurfactants are associated with a 15 times lower impact compared to a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.

• Resource availability: AmphiStar biosurfactants are associated with 3.5 times decrease in the impact category of 'damage to resource availability' compared to a non-upcycled sophorolipid equivalent.

Pierre-Franck Valentin, AmphiStar CEO, commented, 'These LCA figures show that AmphiStar has the disruptive technology the industry needs to replace non-sustainable surfactants. Consumers and legislators are demanding products corresponding with minimal emissions and resource use and which are kind to the environment and its biodiversity. We've demonstrated that AmphiCare® and AmphiClean® offer exactly that without compromising on functionality.'

AmphiCare® (for the personal care and cosmetics markets) and AmphiClean® (for the cleaning and homecare markets) were both launched in October 2024 and are one of the first commercially available fully upcycled microbial biosurfactants. AmphiCare® offers equal or superior functionality compared to competitors, being mild on the skin and eyes. Using its advanced biotechnology platform, AmphiStar has created more than 80 tailored, designer biosurfactant molecules for the personal and home care markets which will go to market at later stages.

COO and co-founder Sophie Roelants said, 'Our development of AmphiCare® and AmphiClean® is just scratching the surface of what we can produce. 98% of surfactants currently in use are not produced sustainably, and with our strain library of more than 500 microbial variants and the extensive expertise that we are fortunate to be able to draw on, we aim to provide highly sustainable alternatives to surfactant users across a wide range of industries in the years to come.'

Co-founder and head of Bioprocessing Karolien Maes added, 'AmphiStar biosurfactants are produced through clean biological processes, using local organic biowaste and agri-food sidestreams in line with circular economy principles. By eliminating reliance on fossil based- and virgin biobased- feedstocks such as palm oil or sugar, AmphiStar biosurfactants offer a more sustainable alternative with a superior lifecycle profile compared to synthetic surfactants and existing (microbial) bio-based biosurfactants.'

Source: AmphiStar