GEORGETA HATEGAN, COURTNAY SHANER, RYAN LITTICH*, STEVE BLOCK, MICHELLE MORIE-BEBEL
*Corresponding author
Elevance Renewable Sciences, Inc.
2501 Davey Road, Woodridge, Illinois 60517, USA

Abstract

There currently is an unmet need in both industrial and consumer cleaning applications for cleaning agents that offer both high performance and an acceptable environmental profile. There has been interest in bio-based alternatives to traditional petrochemical ingredients, but these products either exhibit poor performance or do not address all of the environmental concerns. Using proprietary metathesis technology, Elevance Renewable Sciences developed Elevance Clean™ 1200 (methyl 9-dodecenoate) as a cleaning agent that meets performance and environmental requirements for both industrial and consumer cleaning applications. Its performance is compared to that of other bio-based ingredients.

INTRODUCTION 

Concerns about volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, flammability and toxicity have spurred a desire in industrial and consumer markets for cleaning agents that are more sustainable than their conventional petroleum-derived counterparts (e.g., benzene, toluene, xylenes)(1,2). Biorenewable feedstocks — for example, terpenes from citrus and pine and fatty acid methyl esters from soybean and rapeseed oil — have drawn significant attention as environmentally friendly alternatives (3,4). Unfortunately, these options have suffered from disadvantages that have limited their acceptance in the marketplace (5). For example, inadequate cleaning performance has been the principal challenge for methyl soyate and its use has further been hindered by poor oxidative stability. D-limonene, on the other hand, delivers performance but does not offer necessary sustainability improvements from a VOC perspective. To complicate matters further, d-limonene supply and pricing are inextricably linked to the annual citrus crop and can be highly volatile. Batch-to-batch variations in quality are yet another issue with each of the above bio-based alternatives ...