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Low-carbon footprint mild surfactants
for home and personal care products

Climate-conscious companies are not just cutting emissions in their own production or switching to green energy. They also keep a close eye on the carbon footprint of raw materials and the processes in their value chain.

That’s where our low-carbon glucamides from the GlucoTain® and GlucoPure® lines come in. The broad range of sugar-based surfactants offer a combination of mildness and performance with much better emission profiles, helping to reduce the CO2 footprint of formulations.

Providing powerful foaming and cleaning in personal care and home care formulations, they emit radically less CO2 from cradle to gate than for example the widely used APGs.

A low carbon footprint solution supporting change

The lower carbon footprint is mainly due to fewer processing steps during the manufacturing of the ingredient and more favorable feedstocks used. Compared to the number of chemical steps APGs undergo to become the final product, the glucamides offer a simpler pathway.

Visualisation of CO2 equivalent emitted comparing glucamides with alternatives

Sustainable in production sweet in performance

Specifically designed for use in personal and home care products, our low-carbon glucamides offer a best-in-class alternative to any kind of mild surfactant, including APGs and cocamidopropyl betaines2.

Negative carbon emissions for positive climate action

To compare the carbon footprint of our glucamides to those of cocamidopropyl betaine2 and Cetyl-APG, we performed a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment that took into account biogenic carbon storage (while excluding the effects of land use change).1.

When assessing kilograms of CO2 equivalent emitted per kilogram of 100% active surfactant, the results were impressive:

Clariant Image LOW-CARBON GLUCAMIDES_calculation 2020
  • Our products release at least 78% less carbon than cocamidopropyl betaine2 and 91% less than Cetyl-APG
  • Due to the CO2 absorbed by their renewable raw materials, some of our products even have a negative carbon footprint
  • Replacing 1,000 tons of APG with a GlucoTain® surfactant can save emissions equivalent to those of 1,000 cars driven for a year4

Helping to replace carbon with climate-friendly excellence

Reducing the carbon footprint of a single ingredient may not seem like a lot. But if we all resolve to make and use only products with that seemingly small change, the difference can be huge. Especially if the footprint is reduced by as much as in our low-carbon glucamides.

Yet all this climate-friendliness would be nothing without adequate performance – at which our low-carbon innovations, fortunately, excel.

  • 1 Our assessment followed the calculation principles and methodologies recommended by ISO 14040/44, pending the critical review by a third party
  • 2 Based on Genagen® CAB 818 production
  • 3 Carbon footprint of APG based on Guilbot, J., Life Cycle Assessment of cetearyl glucosides in Personal Care, 2013, with a safety deviation (± 30%) applied to account for possible datedness of results, and database differences
  • 4 Calculation done with the EPA’s greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator

Find out more about their performance and order a sample

  • GlucoTain Care
    GlucoTain Care is the most tender in our mild sugar surfactant family. With its rich and creamy foam, it still remains easy to rinse off and leaves a gently conditioned and moisturized after feel. Especially suitable for dry, damaged and sensitive hair and skin. Due to its sensory profile it is recommended for conditioning, repair and baby shampoos as well as pampering facial cleansers. Discover Value with GlucoTain. To learn more, click here
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  • GlucoTain Clear
    GlucoTain Clear (INCI: Capryloyl/Caproyl Methyl Glucamide) is our EO- and PEG-free hero surfactant for fresh and light formulations and an excellent solubilizer for fragrances for all kinds of products. This sugar surfactant offers formulations a boost through light and fluffy foam, easy rinse-off, and a squeaky-clean skin feel. Suitable for all skin types, GlucoTain Clear provides an ideal solution for refreshing, vitalizing shower products, hand wash, and 2-in-1 shower and hair products.Providing powerful foaming and cleaning in personal care and home care formulations, GlucoTain ingredients emit radically less CO2 from cradle to gate than for example the widely used APGs.
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  • GlucoTain Flex
    GlucoTain® Flex is our versatile sugar surfactant offering freedom when formulating. It supports the development of sulfate-free and CAPB-free formulations, and with its creamy foam, it leaves a squeaky-clean and nourished after-feel. Learn more about the story of Glucotain.
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  • GlucoTain Sense
    This powerful sensory additive adds a deep caring after-feel to your rinse-off formulations. GlucoTain® Sense (INCI: Sunfloweroyl Methylglucamide) is a mild sugar surfactant with refatting effects, it is non-tropical sourced, based on sunflower oil and sugar.
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  • GlucoPure® Deg
    GlucoPure Deg presents the same performance profile of the GlucoPure Foam, but is commercialized with more than 60% active content and approximately 10% of ethanol.
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  • GlucoPure® Wet
    GlucoPure Wet combines fast soap scum removal and mildness to plastic materials to give you the most suitable co-surfactant for bathroom cleaners and hard surface cleaners in general.
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  • GlucoPure® Foam
    GlucoPure Foam is the perfect combination of sustainability and performance for Hand Dishwashing Liquid Detergents, with the additional benefits of no aqua toxicity labelling and skin mildness.
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  • GlucoPure® Sense
    GlucoPure Sense is a co-surfactant from the Glucamide family based on sunflower oil grown and harvested in Europe. It delivers unparalleled mildness to hand dishwashing liquid detergents, with the additional benefits of allowing for non-irritant label formulations.
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Any questions? get in touch

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