“There are companies that make money from creating stains on clothes and dirt on dishes,” Sam explains. “And for a good reason. If you want to develop a product, you have to test it thoroughly and standardise as much as possible. This includes the dirt.” In the Cosun Biobased Experts test kitchen, four identical dishwashers stand in a row. “This is where we test the functionalities of our products and compare them with others on the market. Almost every test is the same, although sometimes we change a parameter, for example the temperature or water hardness. There are even rules about how to load a dishwasher, otherwise the test is void.” The team usually runs six to thirty washes in the test installation, after which the results are assessed. For glasses, this is done in an illuminated cabinet, according to an established protocol. Sam: “Here, we test for limescale, for example. We’re using dishwasher tablets to which we’ve added varying concentrations of our ingredient Carboxyline® CMI. This is an ingredient that captures calcium and magnesium salts and which, even in low concentrations, has a huge effect on limescale.”
Standardised stains
Cosun Biobased Experts also has a complete arsenal of standard stains it can use for testing detergents: from clay and grass, to spaghetti sauce and wine. “We also use Carboxyline® CMI a lot in detergents, where it primarily prevents the crystallisation of calcium and magnesium. This means a black t-shirt is less likely to turn grey, for example.” Another functionality of Carboxyline® CMI is that it prevents loose dirt particles from reattaching. “When you wash dirt off a piece of clothing, you don’t want it to re-attach somewhere else. Our product can prevent this for clay and rust stains, for example. But it has little effect on coffee stains, for example. There are other ingredients for that. This is why, each and every product is an important piece in the puzzle when it comes to the composition of a detergent.”
Natural source
We need to work continuously on developing detergents, because the way we do the washing is also changing. Whereas washing machines used to use an average of 100-150 litres of water, the average is now between 40-60 litres. This water saving has a major impact on the effectiveness of your washing machine. Sam: “Less water means more dirt per litre. We’ve also started washing at lower temperatures. These changes save energy and water, but you’re asking more from the chemistry. With Carboxyline® CMI, we offer an effective alternative to non-renewable ingredients, one that’s degradable, non-toxic and comes from a fantastic natural product: inulin.”
Shiny black taps
One of Sam’s recent success stories that he can quite rightly be proud of is a limescale remover with Carboxyline® CMI: “You know the black taps? They’re actually lightly coated. If you treat them with an aggressive descaler, the coating is slowly eaten away.” One customer developed a product in which Carboxyline® CMI: “You know the black taps? They’re actually lightly coated. If you treat them with an aggressive descaler, the coating is slowly eaten away.” One customer developed a product in which Carboxyline® CMI was used to gently remove limescale while preserving the coating. “I used to have a tap like that myself. The coating was completely destroyed. So, I was really motivated to make this project a success,” Sam laughs. “Now, people with nice black fittings no longer need to worry.”
