The Dutch washing powder company is looking for technologies, applications and other solutions to cope with the residual flow that remains after sifting the manufactured washing powders. Cooperation is envisaged within the framework of a technical cooperation agreement.
The company, founded in 1876 with a turnover of over 100 million Euros per year, produces a full range of detergents and cleaning products for the private label market, is a major European player and serves the wholesale and industrial Cash & Carry market.
Chemical waste is a serious problem all over the world, including the Netherlands. To protect the environment, waste should be reused as much as possible to shorten its life cycle and reduce the use of chemicals and natural sources.
Grinding granular detergents to a fine powder is undesirable because the fine powder cannot be reused by the company for product quality reasons. In addition, most of their laundry detergents contain surface enzymes that pose a health hazard if the coating breaks down during sanding and people inhale the dust from the crushed granulate.
In the production of detergent powders, during mixing in special mixers, lumps are formed when liquid surfactants are applied to the powder. Some of these lumps do not disintegrate to form a powder, but remain intact. After mixing, the detergent powders are transported through an oscillating sieve (3 mm) to the feeding machines. Lumps of coagulated detergent powder (3-40 mm) remain on the grid platform in the form of a residual stream, which is collected in big bags. They are too large to be used as a washing powder. In fact, these scraps of waste are a very rich detergent (a high percentage of surfactants). But there is no attachment to it. The amount is about 50 tons annually.
The company is looking for technologies, applications, methods or other ideas to cope with this residual flux that remains after sifting the detergent powders they produce.
The company is looking for partners who have competencies in the following areas:
– processing of washing waste of detergents;
– processes and methods of extraction;
– filtration methods
– mixing or granulating technology
– know-how for handling the type of residual streams available.
The company is ready to conclude an agreement on technical cooperation, but there is an opportunity to discuss other forms of cooperation and agreements.