Furafact: Novel high performance furan surfactants from biobased building blocks

表面活性剂是同时具有亲水性(亲水)和疏水性(憎水)区域的化学物质，这使得它们对于混合油和水、稳定泡沫以及去除表面和衣物上的污垢非常有用。因此，表面活性剂被广泛用于各种工业部门和产品，包括洗涤剂和清洁剂、个人护理(洗发水、洗手液和沐浴液)、用作润湿剂的植物保护、油漆和涂料以及制药中的乳化剂。今天可用的大多数表面活性剂基本上都是从化石燃料中提取的。生物基表面活性剂可能是一种替代品，但目前可用的那些功能有限，通常比化石表面活性剂贵3到5倍。然而，客户和消费者要求可持续的生物基成分，现在确实需要高功能的生物基表面活性剂用于一系列应用。本项目将展示一种新型的生物基表面活性剂家族的潜力，该家族的基础是从农业废渣中提取的糖衍生的呋喃头基，以取代化石衍生的表面活性剂。在电子数据模拟的引领下，将选择一些呋喃表面活性剂的变种进行合成和测试。将在实验室规模上演示一种具有商业意义的呋喃表面活性剂的生产工艺。将绘制在英国生产呋喃表面活性剂的合适原料和构件的可获得性。潜在的呋喃积木生产商、原料转化器和客户将被邀请通过利益相关者董事会参与该项目，以使FuraFact与英国化学品制造业和客户需求保持一致。

Surfactants are chemicals with both hydrophilic (water loving) and hydrophobic (water hating) regions, which makes them extremely useful for mixing oils and water, stabilising foams and removing dirt from surfaces and laundry. As a result, surfactants are used across a broad array of industrial sectors and products, including laundry detergents and cleaning, personal care (shampoos, hand and body wash liquids), plant protection as wetting agents, in paints and coatings and as emulsifiers in pharmaceuticals. Most of the surfactants available today are substantially derived from fossil fuels. Biobased surfactants could be an alternative but those that are currently available have limited functionality and are typically 3 to 5 times more expensive that fossil-based surfactants. However, customers and consumers are demanding sustainable biobased ingredients and there is a real need now for highly functional, biobased surfactants for an array of applications.This project will demonstrate the potential for a novel family of biobased surfactants, based on the furan headgroup derived from sugars from waste agricultural residues, to replace fossil-derived surfactants. Led by _in silico_ data modelling, a number of furan surfactant variants will be selected for synthesis and testing. A commercially relevant process for manufacturing the lead furan surfactants will be demonstrated at lab scale. Availability of suitable feedstocks and building blocks to manufacture the furan surfactants in the UK will be mapped. Potential furan building block producers, feedstock converters and customers will be invited to engage with the project via a stakeholder board to align Furafact both with the UK chemicals manufacturing industry and customer demands.