Using secondary resources of sunflower seed processing to create new natural origin surfactants

Today great attention is paid to development of advanced technologies for production of ecologically safe, nonpolluting and biodegradable products, including without limitation cosmetic-hygiene detergents and household products. One of the main ingredients in formulation of such products is surfactants. For the purpose of widening of the assortment of such products it is essential to create new types of biodegradable surfactants derived from renewable, as a rule, plant raw materials. The object of this paper is development of technology for production of non-ionic surfactant, alkyl polyglycoside (APG), with improved characteristics on the basis of the alternative plant raw material, sunflower husks, being the waste by-product of sunflower processing, which is the most commonly available raw material in our country. The output of sunflower processing aiming at sunflower oil production is growing year by year and takes the leading place in the oil-and-fat industry, therefore processing of the waste product in the form of husks is of particular interest now. In the course of work the existing technologies of APG production were studied and their shortcomings were identified. According to such technologies alkyl polyglycoside is produced by combining glucose or aqueous syrupy solution of glucose with C10- C16 alcohol. As the sources of starch, from which glucose is produced further, there are used rice, corn, potatoes or wheat. Such products represent no wastes and have rather high production cost. Fatty alcohols are produced from imported palm or coconut oil. The new technology suggested by us is based on usage of the available and cheap raw materials. Glucose syrup is made with the help of the method of hydrolysis of sunflower husks cellulose, and fatty acids are derived from the sunflower processing cycle at the stage of alkali refining of sunflower oil, comprising C16-C18 atoms. Analysis of organoleptic, physical-and-chemical characteristics and evaluation of consumer properties of the resulting alkyl polyglycoside were performed. It was established that according to the suggested method it is possible to produce a non-ionic surfactant with improved detergent (CCM) and foaming power (foam height, foam stability), and also having soft dermatological action. The alkyl polyglycoside, created and produced with the help of our technology, can be used as an alternate substitute of expensive foreign non-ionic surfactants, can be helpful for extension of the assortment of biodegradable foam detergents, nonpolluting and safe for the environment.