Biodegradable polymers: Andreas Künkel receives the Meyer-Galow Prize for Industrial Chemistry 2025

15-Dec-2025 - Professor Dr. Andreas Künkel, BASF SE, Vice President, Head of Biodegradation & Microplastics Research is awarded the Meyer-Galow Prize for Industrial Chemistry 2025. He receives the prize for the further development of structural and functional biodegradable polymers. The prize is awarded by the ...

Glyphosate can come from detergent additives

Research team produces evidence of a previously unknown source of the controversial herbicide in bodies of water

15-May-2025 - Certain detergent additives known as aminopolyphosphonates can be transformed into glyphosate and other problematic substances when wastewater is treated. A research team led by Professor Stefan Haderlein of the Geo- and Environmental Center at the University of Tübingen has made this fundamental ...

Walnut shells as ingredients for cosmetics

Search for alternatives to microplastics

12-Dec-2023 - Banned throughout the EU since October 2023: Microplastics in all cosmetic products and detergents. But what alternatives are there? Researchers at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) want to find out together with the family-run company bb med. product GmbH from the Lower Rhine ...

Henkel signs agreement with Shell on renewable-based ingredients

Shell to replace approximately 200,000 tonnes of fossil feedstocks with renewable feedstocks for cleaning ingredients

20-Jan-2023 - Henkel and Shell Chemical LP have agreed to a five-year collaboration to replace up to 200,000 tonnes of fossil feedstocks used in the manufacture of surfactants with feedstocks that are based on renewable raw materials. The renewable-based surfactants will be used in Henkel’s laundry product ...

LANXESS and Matrìca team up to produce sustainable preservatives from renewable raw materials

Development of new generation of sustainable preservatives

02-Feb-2022 - Specialty chemicals company LANXESS and Matrìca, a joint venture between Versalis (Eni) and Novamont, have partnered to produce sustainable biocide preservatives from renewable raw materials. Starting in January 2022, the Matrìca plant at Porto Torres (Sardinia, Italy) will supply LANXESS with ...

Surfactants with regional vegetable oils for sustainable household and personal care products

Meyer-Galow Award for Business Chemistry Chemistry 2020 goes to Edgar Endlein

23-Jun-2021 - Dr. Edgar Endlein, Managing Director Research & Development, Werner & Mertz GmbH, Mainz, will receive the Meyer-Galow Award for Business Chemistry Chemistry 2020 on July 7, 2021. The prize of the foundation of the same name, which is part of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), is endowed with ...

Microplastics from the washing machine

Textiles made from synthetic fibers release microfibers

27-Jun-2017 - The presence of microplastics in our wastewater can be attributed primarily to two factors. Firstly, many cosmetic products, such as toothpaste, creams, shower gels, and peelings, contain tiny pieces of plastic in order to achieve a mechanical cleaning effect. Secondly, microplastics are washed ...

BASF to build new chelating agent plant for more sustainable detergents and cleaners

Investment responds to growing worldwide demand for phosphate alternatives

30-Jan-2014 - In order to meet the fast growing global market demand for its innovative chelating agent, BASF will build a new Trilon®M (methylglycinediacetic acid) world scaleplant at Evonik’s Theodore, Alabamasite. The investment will be about $90 million and create around 20 additional jobs. The new ...

Fundamental research into energy efficiency: Henkel confers award in recognition of outstanding PhD thesis

10-Jul-2012 - Henkel has conferred its “Laundry & Home Care Research Award,” which comes with a check for 3,000 euros, on scientist Dr. Peggy Heunemann in recognition of her exceptional PhD thesis relating to the occurrence and the structures of nano-emulsions. The researcher did her PhD at Berlin University ...

Henkel and 4SC Discovery start research collaboration

05-Apr-2012 - Henkel and 4SC Discovery have agreed a research collaboration in the area of compound screening. The aim of the joint research project is to identify new and more effective laundry detergent ingredients. For its part, 4SC Discovery will perform property calculations for several million ...