Waste oil derived bio-based surfactant with high cleaning efficiency and low foaming ability in heavy hard water for green detergents

Surfactants with high resistance to hard water and without undesirable chelating additives in detergent formulations still remain a challenge in household and industrial cleaning. In this study, a new bio-based surfactant (WAF-OFS) was synthesized from renewable waste soybean oil and furan as raw materials, and its structure was characterized using ESI-MS. The properties of WAF-OFS, including surface activity, wettability, foaming property, emulsification index, biodegradability, cleaning efficiency, and hard water tolerance, were systematically investigated to evaluate its potential for applications in green detergents without the undesirable chelating additives in formulations. WAF-OFS demonstrated high cleaning efficiency in heavy hard water with Ca 2+ ions up to 10,000 mg/kg, indicating that no additional chelating agents need to be added to the detergent formulations, thereby, streamlining the detergent formulations and reducing costs. Meanwhile, WAF-OFS exhibits a low-foaming ability, low toxicity, and acceptable biodegradability, making it a green surfactant suitable for detergents in washing machine cleaning, and for facilitating the design of a new generation of chelating-agent-free green detergents for sustainable and eco-friendly applications in both household chemicals and industrial cleaning applications. • A bio-based surfactant WAF-OFS with high cleaning efficiency and low foaming ability is prepared using biomass. • WAF-OFS is a low-foaming and easy-rinsing surfactant suitable for detergents in washing machine cleaning. • WAF-OFS demonstrates a high Ca 2+ ion resistance up to 10000 mg/kg and promises itself for chelating additive free green detergents.