Skin fat is deposited on all skin-near textiles. As it is quasi-solid at low temperatures, it is hard to remove in cold water. With the growing urge to reduce washing temperatures due to new fibres and in order to save energy, time and money, we want to identify new approaches towards better and more effective removal of solid fats at low temperatures without the need for a pretreatment.
LAS (linear alkylbenzene sulphonate) is the most important surfactant used in today's laundry detergents. Due to depletion of oil reservoirs, high volatility of oil prices and increasing sustainability awareness surfactants alternatives to LAS, e. g. based on renewable feedstocks are of high interest.
Bleach is one of the major contributors for stain removal in solid laundry detergents. It is desired to incorporate bleach (active oxygen) in liquid detergent formulations. The challenge is the combination with enzymes in such formulations to avoid bleach decomposition and destruction of enzymes at the same time. Sought after is a method to stabilize H2O2 or active oxygen precursors in a liquid detergent environment containing surfactants and ensure compatibility with enzymes.
Burnt-in soil is very hard to remove in automatic dishwashing applications. We are interested in identifying new approaches towards improved cleaning performance on burnt-in soils. Typically, burnt-in soils contain proteins, carbohydrates, Maillard reaction products thereof and fats. They occur for example in/during meals "au gratin", scrambled eggs, baking of cakes or roasting of meat. Usually, cookware (pans, casseroles) made from glass, metal or ceramics is affected.
Visual support as a performance indicator of cleaners is important evidence for consumers, visualizing the initiation or the completion of the cleaning process. We are looking for substances which lead to color change or clouding when applying the cleaner formulation, e. g. several minutes after spraying onto a surface (preferred under acidic conditions) or when added to the water in the bucket.
The most common enzyme in detergent formulations is protease. In order to maintain the activity level of the protease also during long-term storage of the detergent, protease stabilizers such as boric acid are used.
We are looking for alternative substances capable of stabilizing protease on the same level or even better.