Background
A conglomerate of chemical industries who is a market leader in providing innovative solutions to the consumer packaged goods industries.
Challenge
The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry (e.g. laundry detergents, fabric softeners, hard-surface cleaners) recently made major commitments to improving the sustainability profile of their products. In many cases, color forms an important facet of the formulations, signaling quality, brand, or application. Typical dyes used in the industry have poor sustainability profiles, as they are petroleum derived and persist in the environment. The opportunity exists to improve the sustainability profile of the colorants used in CPG space.
Potential areas of sustainability include, but are not limited to:
- Colorants extracted from natural sources
- Biodegradable dyes/colorants,
- Colorants produced through biofermentation/genetic modification.
To meet the needs of the CPG industry, the colorants in question should be water soluble and stable in some portion of a pH range between 2 and 10, ideally covering a range of at least 3 units. Additionally, the product should be expected to be cost effective (<100 USD/KG) and scalable to meet demand (~ 20 MT/year).
What's in it for you?
A successful collaboration could mean forming a partnership/joint venture to co-develop the idea and its path to implementation. These are global challenges and you are willing to collaborate with both individuals/freelancers and other industry participants/universities etc.
If you are up for the challenge and would like to help shape the future of our company, please click “Apply” to submit your ideas/expertise to the Network. Success in this area could results in a technology platform that could scale to multiple products (e.g, a portfolio of colorants) for application in a variety of markets.