Did you know that crude oil is found not only in petrol but also a large number of everyday products such as body lotion, cleaning products and detergents and even in chewing gum? Lots of clothes are also made from oil-based synthetic fabrics. Scientists researching the bioeconomy want to change this. They are searching for alternative, bio-based raw materials. One of them is Professor Kai Sundmacher. In the Faculty of Process and Systems Engineering at the University of Magdeburg he is exploring how sunflowers could be turned into detergent. In the second episode of “Learn When You Want To” he explains how it works and the challenges faced by the bioeconomy.

Our guest today

In the second episode, our guest is Professor Kai Sundmacher from the Institute of Process Engineering at the University of Magdeburg. He is examining production processes in the chemical industry and, among other things, is researching alternatives to fossil-based raw materials such as crude oil that are used in the manufacture of everyday products such as detergents and fertilizers. Following the program in Process Engineering at the University of Magdeburg is an excellent way to lay the first basic building block for a career working or conducting research in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, building services engineering, medical technology or machinery and plant engineering.

 *the audio file is only available in German

The Podcast to Read

Intro voice: "Wissen, wann du wilst." The podcast about research at the University of Magdeburg.

Ina Götze: In keeping with the theme of the Year of Science, our 2nd episode of “Learn When You Want To” is devoted to the bioeconomy. Oil is used not only to produce petrol, but also in a large number of everyday products, for example cleaning products, body lotion, clothing and - though it’s hard to believe - in chewing gum too! The bioeconomy aims to replace fossil-based raw materials with renewables, and it is precisely this that Professor Kai Sundmacher from the Institute of Process Engineering is researching. He is our guest today and will explain to us how sunflowers can be used to make washing detergent. Welcome!

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: Hello!

Ina Götze: What exactly is it that you are researching? Which products and processes are you looking at?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: We are exploring complex production processes for intermediate and end products in the chemical industry. This includes sources of energy such as hydrogen, methanol, liquid fuels and also everyday products such as detergents, plastics and fertilizers. The majority of production processes today use fossil-based raw materials, above all natural gas and crude oil. In the long run this is, of course, problematic, because these raw materials will not be available in unlimited quantities forever. Apart from this, we also use natural gas to provide heat for our production processes. This releases carbon dioxide, a gas that is damaging to the climate. That is why we are researching processes that use renewable materials and renewable sources of energy in place of fossil-based raw materials.

Ina Götze: Crude oil is part of an unbelievably large number of products. So how can it be replaced by bio-based raw materials, and by which?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: What do we mean by bio-based raw materials? They are renewable raw materials - so plants - that are grown in the fields and of which every part can be utilized, right through to the fruit. Or wood, harvested from forests, might in future supply either in part or entirely, those raw materials from which we could then create all essential chemical products. Added to this is waste materials, such as straw from agriculture or tree bark and even food waste, which could also be used. Not forgetting that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere could itself also be a source of carbon for the chemical production processes of the future. Here too there is already a whole host of examples from industry that are showing the way for development. For example, we could replace the PET in drinking bottles, which today is manufactured from crude oil, with another polymer, known as PEF. This is a polymer that can be produced from lignocelluloses, which are obtained from wood. When these lignocelluloses are suitably processed chemically, through many intermediate stages it is possible to produce a plastic that can then be used in drinking bottles. Another example is biodegradable plastic made using lactic acid. This means that it is possible to produce a packaging material from lactic acid that has similar properties to the packaging materials that today are obtained from crude oil.

Ina Götze: Personally, I really like using FROSCH products - here’s a quick unpaid advert for them! According to their advertising slogan, their products have been of organic quality since 1986 and even the packaging is supposed to be 100 per cent recycled. If it has been possible to do this for so long, why are there not more bio-based or organic products available to buy in the supermarkets?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: Actually, when they were first launched, FROSCH’s cleaning products were the first phosphate-free cleaning products on the German market. These products are EMAS certified. EMAS stands for “Eco-Management and Audit Scheme”, also known as EU-Eco Audit. It was developed by the European Union and is a community scheme consisting of environmental management and environmental audit for organizations wishing to improve their environmental performance. Like other brands, FROSCH still uses surfactants that are made from palm kernel oil. Obtaining it may result in tropical rain forest being cleared, which can lead to serious ecological problems. For this reason, as far as I am aware, FROSCH is now working on using oil from Europe in future, from renewable oil plants instead of palm kernel oil. Since 2013, according to its own information, between ten and one hundred per cent of the surfactants contained in FROSCH products have come from European-grown sources.

Ina Götze: And why are there so few organic products?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: The number is increasing considerably, but, of course, there could be more. A significant factor is raw material costs, which are even higher than the cost of using crude oil.

Ina Götze: So it’s a question of cost. I have to confess: in chemistry lessons - I was never the best. I didn’t understand it very well - really it was more of a surprise that I didn’t lose an eyebrow. Which is why I can’t imagine, or only with difficulty, how it is possible to make washing detergent from sunflowers. How does it work?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: The important thing about washing detergents is the surfactants that they contain. These are molecules that have one end that is hydrophilic, that is receptive to water, and another end that is lipophilic, in other words that tends to combine with lipids or fats. This means, for example, that it is possible to easily clean a dirty, oily plate with water with the help of the surfactant, because it is a mediator between water and oil. Surfactants can be produced from plant oils, thus also from the oil that is found in sunflower seeds as well as rape seed and olives. In chemical terms, sunflower oil is a glycerol ester of different fatty acids. In the case of the sunflower, the fatty acid is linoleic acid. It has 18 carbon atoms. We have to imagine it like a long chain molecule with a functional group that makes this molecule into an acid. If, for example, one were to add sodium hydroxide to this oil, then the ester would be split, and a sodium soap would be produced. This sodium soap is basically the surfactant made from linoleic acid. So, if you happened to have sodium hydroxide at home, you could, in next to no time, make soap yourself from sunflower oil. However it is also possible to split the oleic acid into shorter molecules using a few chemical reaction tricks. This produces shorter-chain surfactants, and in addition other molecules that are very valuable, known as olefins. These are carbon chains that contain a double bond. Other chemical manipulations can be carried out on this double bond so that the molecules suddenly obtain other properties, for example they could become base products for polymers, i.e. for plastics and also fragrances.

Ina Götze: Oh, sunflower perfume! That would be nice too! Does the detergent clean just as well as conventional detergents?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: In principle yes, because the cleaning action does not depend on whether a molecule is built of atoms that come from crude oil or biomass, but instead depends on the so-called hydrophobic balance of the molecule and on its size, because the size determines how quickly the molecule is able to move around the boundary surface between oil and water and that then determines the washing effect.

Ina Götze: Fundamentally, at first glance, chemical products with organic labels might sound contradictory to the consumer. Do consumers trust the organic label in spite of this.

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: Organic products are absolutely in the ascendant and chemistry and biology are not in conflict with one another. What is important is to establish a chemical industry that is able to produce sustainably over the long term. Biomass is used for this, in order to close the carbon cycle. The only snag is just that some organic products currently cost more because the raw materials are also more expensive.

Ina Götze: Does your research have an impact on your private life? Do you, for example, use chestnuts for your laundry instead of conventional washing detergents?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: When it comes to washing detergents, what is especially important to me and my family is how kind it is to the skin. For us, the “sensitive” label is especially important, but naturally when buying products I do pay attention to whether or not I can be confident that they have been produced sustainably.

Ina Götze: In addition to the actual raw materials, your research focuses on the manufacturing processes. What can still be improved?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: All sorts, especially energy efficiency. Many chemical production processes release heat at certain points. This heat could be used in other places. Apart from that, it is also the case that we use a huge amount of additives. Catalysts, for example. We are all familiar with the catalytic converters in cars that clean exhaust emissions, but such catalysts are also used in the chemical industry in many, many other places, in order to accelerate reactions or drive the process forward in the desired way to the end product. This could still be improved. And often we have to recover them too, because these catalysts are themselves expensive. To do this, we use solvent systems. Under the EU’s REACH regulations, these solvents must themselves also be environmentally safe. For this reason, among other things, we are working towards replacing toxic solvent components in chemical production with so-called “green” solvents, in other words that are environmentally compatible, are not hazardous to health and that can also be safely used in chemical processes. Apart from this, it is also, of course, a matter of making the production more profitable - even more profitable - by increasing flexibility in relation to tolerance against fluctuations that occur time and again. When using organic raw materials in particular, we have to reckon with fluctuations in the quality of the raw materials. This has to be compensated for through intelligent process control.

Ina Götze: Are there products or processes where crude oil could already be replaced? How has their environmental footprint improved.

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: There are some highly interesting, great examples from the chemical industry where they have, for example, succeeded in using carbon dioxide and biomass to produce plastic. Another example is an American-Icelandic consortium that has managed to produce methanol from carbon dioxide and hydrogen under Icelandic conditions, sustainably, making use of the geothermal energy of the island in the process. The raw material base will need be to be broadened, not only through the use of biomass, but also of carbon dioxide, but the carbon footprint will, of course, only improve if the energy supply for these chemical processes relies more heavily on renewable energies, as only then can overall carbon dioxide emissions be drastically reduced.

Ina Götze: Are there countries that are ahead of us? Countries in which no crude oil-based products can be obtained?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: Brazil is an interesting example that I can think of in this connection. Brazil uses methanol to a massive extent, for example also for obtaining ethylene. Ethylene is a small molecule with two carbon atoms joined by a double bond. It is highly reactive, and it is the monomer from which we are able to produce the plastic polyethylene. When you see the letters PE on packaging, that means it is made from polyethylene. In many cases this polyethylene is made from crude-oil based raw materials, but Brazil, for example, makes it from bioethanol. But even Brazil is not able to manage completely without crude oil.

Ina Götze: So there is still plenty of scope for improvement. Perhaps Saxony-Anhalt could take a pioneering role here. Do you think that the region has potential?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: Absolutely! The long tradition of chemical production particularly in the southern part of Saxony-Anhalt, in what is known as the chemical triangle, makes this state the perfect location for establishing a functioning bioeconomy. I am firmly convinced that this will and can be an important basis for our future economic success in Saxony-Anhalt.

Ina Götze: Great prospects! Let’s look a little bit further into the future. How do you think the bioeconomy will change in the next ten years?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: I assume that it will undergo a rapid upswing because large companies in the chemical production sector are concentrating heavily on sustainability goals as defined by, for example, the UN. Society is undergoing a transformation. The younger generation in particular is bringing pressure to bear to entrench an ethos of greater sustainability. Politicians are increasingly putting in place the right framework conditions to accelerate this transformation. For all this, however, we must also understand that the bioeconomy alone will not be a cure-all. There are things that we must also take a critical look at, for example competition with food production or the over-fertilization of large tracts of agricultural land. It is, therefore, a question of intelligently integrating the bioeconomy into chemical production and, as I said previously, in this context carbon dioxide-based chemical production will also play a large part. In tandem with the bioeconomy there are some really interesting, promising solutions being generated.

Ina Götze: Perhaps Greta will also contribute to making this happen a little quicker. The pressure is definitely there. To finish with I would really like to talk about your personal goals again, and specifically, if you could wish for something for your research, what would it be that you would like to achieve?

Professor Dr. Kai Sundmacher: We would like to make a significant contribution towards making chemical production more sustainable and more energy-efficient, so that at all levels of the production process we make adjustments in order to optimize production, to make it more environmentally friendly, healthier and less resource hungry. To do this we must, of course, work closely with the chemical industry. That is why we have set up a whole range of projects. But I think, of course, that an especially important subject is that of the reduction of greenhouse gases, first and foremost of carbon dioxide emissions, which must be drastically reduced. For this reason, very recently we have initiated a series of projects whose aim is to exploit carbon dioxide as a raw material and not only to reduce CO2 emissions, but also extract it from the atmosphere in order to utilize it for chemical production.

Ina Götze: That sounds great, really exciting! Thank you so much for coming and giving us such a wonderful insight into your research, which is extremely important for us all. Thank you too for listening. We hope you will listen again next time. Until then!

Intro voice: "Wissen, wann du wilst." The podcast about research at the University of Magdeburg.