On a mission to disrupt the US$45 billion global surfactant industry with greener alternatives

29 August, 2024

AUT-based Associate Investigator, Dr Jack Chen, has today been announced as a finalist for the 2024 KiwiNet Sprout Agritech Breakthrough Innovator Award.

Jack’s new start-up company, Spherelose, uses cellulose from sustainably harvested timber and combines this cellulose with plant oils, to make surfactants that can used in a many applications. Surfactants are chemical substances that mix things that normally don’t mix well, like oil and water, and are used in shampoos, cleaning products, creams for oil-water emulsification, agricultural sprays, food production, pharmaceuticals and more..

Welcoming the announcement, MacDiarmid Institute Co-Director Professor Justin Hodgkiss said that while surfactants were traditionally derived from petroleum-based sources, Jack (who is a senior lecturer in chemistry) had  developed surfactants that were both sustainable and biodegradable.

"Jack’s research connects closely to the Institute’s Reconfigurable Systems research programme where our researchers are looking at ways to create renewable bio-based functional materials and closed-loop systems that create no waste," Justin said.

The technology behind Spherelose involves transforming cellulose into round nanoparticles ranging from 100 to 200 nm in size. (100 nm is about one thousandth of the size of a small grain of sand.) One side of each of these round nanoparticles is coated with plant-based oil, resulting in what are called Janus particles. Janus particles contain two faces - a hydrophilic (water-loving) face and a lipophilic (oil-loving) face – allowing the particles to stabilize oil-water interfaces, making them highly efficient surfactants.

Jack’s early research attracted the attention of key players in the innovation sector. He received early stage support for his innovation from Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI), MBIE, KiwiNet as well as a Commercialisation Seeding Grant from the MacDiarmid Institute in 2020 for initial patent landscape assessment and market analysis in relation to his research.

Jack says the results of the patent and market analysis convinced both him and AUT Ventures that the idea was novel. "This showed there was a commercial opportunity," he says. 

With over 90% of current surfactants derived from fossil fuels, there is a pressing need for sustainable alternatives. Spherelose aims to offer bio-derived, biodegradable surfactants as replacements, challenging the US$45 billion global surfactant industry with more eco-friendly solutions.

You can read more about Jack’s research and the work of the other finalists here.

MacDiarmid Institute Associate Investigator Dr Jack Chen.