Press release
Nutrition & Care
December 7, 2016

SEPAWA Innovation Award for REWOFERM® biosurfactant

Essen, Germany. During this year's annual congress of SEPAWA Evonik has been honored with the SEPAWA Innovation Award 2016. The jury rewarded the outstanding cleaning properties and the excellent ecological profile of the REWOFERM® biosurfactant.

The winner in the surfactant category is an exceptionally mild surfactant to the skin. At the same time, the sophorolipid is readily biodegradable under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions and fully complies with European Ecolabel requirements. REWOFERM® is manufactured from yeasts in an ecologically friendly fermentation process using only renewable raw materials. With a Renewable Carbon Index (RCI) of 100%, it is the most sustainable secondary surfactant commercially available.

"Precisely where other surfactants reach their limits, our product scores heavily," says Dr. Xiaolan Wang, head of Evonik’s Household Care Business Line. It has excellent surface cleaning power, it removes cosmetic stains, and it removes grease. Furthermore REWOFERM® helps to control the foaming behavior of cleaning products. "With this profile, the sophorolipid offers customers an opportunity to differentiate themselves in the promising bioproducts growth segment," says Wang.

The SEPAWA Innovation Award is not the first prize Evonik has received for REWOFERM®. In spring of this year, the product was named "Bio-Based Material of the Year."

The SEPAWA Congress is the largest European forum for the detergents and cleaning products industry and for manufacturers of cosmetics, personal care, and perfume products. In mid October, more than 2,500 trade professionals traveled to the German town of Fulda to learn more about the latest trends in these areas.

Company information

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals, operating in the Nutrition & Care, Resource Efficiency and Performance Materials segments. The company benefits from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. In 2015 more than 33,500 employees generated sales of around €13.5 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of about €2.47 billion.

About Nutrition & Care

The Nutrition & Care segment is led by Evonik Nutrition & Care GmbH and contributes to fulfilling basic human needs. That includes applications for everyday consumer goods as well as animal nutrition and health care. This segment employed about 7,000 employees, and generated sales of around
€4.9 billion in 2015.

Disclaimer

In so far as forecasts or expectations are expressed in this press release or where our statements concern the future, these forecasts, expectations or statements may involve known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Actual results or developments may vary, depending on changes in the operating environment. Neither Evonik Industries AG nor its group companies assume an obligation to update the forecasts, expectations or statements contained in this release.