By Xu Chenxin, CNCIC

Alkyl polyglycoside (APG) is synthesized from natural fatty alcohols and glucose in the presence of acidic catalyst. It is a mild, non-toxic, biodegradable, nonionic surfactant with excellent wettability and compatibility and is less irritating to human body. APG is mainly used as a surfactant in household cleaning, personal care products and pesticides. It is also applied in paper-making, petroleum, textiles and dyeing & printing industries.

Current situation of APG supply

   China’s APG capacity and output saw rapid growth in 2014-2017, surging by around 30% and 40% respectively. By 2017, domestic APG capacity reached 120 kt/a and output were around 90 kt. 

   Shanghai Fine Chemical Co., Ltd. is the largest APG producer in China, having 30 kt/a of capacity and 15 kt annual output. Jiangsu Wanqi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Hugo New Materials (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., Yangzhou Chenhua New Materials Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Transfer Group carried out capacity expansions during 2014-2017. Details are listed in Table 1.

   Table 1    Chinese APG producers

   Major domestic products include APG 0810, APG 1214 and APG 0814. The former two are commonly used and they together account for around 80% of total domestic output. 

Current situation of APG demand

   Domestic APG consumption grew at a fast pace in 2014-2017, rising from 25 kt to 70 kt, with an average annual growth rate at 40.9%. 

   Household cleaning products were the largest consumer of APG in 2017, covering 43% of domestic APG consumption, followed by the agrochemicals industry, which has been developing rapidly and the personal care field accounted for 18%.  

   China’s consumption volume of liquid detergents rose from 7 604 kt to 9 058 kt during 2014-2017, logging in an annual growth rate of 6%. The demand growth pace has been accelerating. In addition, wider application of drum washing machines has shifted people’s consumption habits. They prefer laundry detergents, rather than washing powder (currently, drum washing machines account for less than 50% of market share and still have the development potential). Hence, demand for liquid detergents will increase. The consumption of such high-end detergents as APG-containing detergents, which can enhance product quality, will continue to increase with the improvement of consumer’s income level, and this will subsequently boost APG consumption.  

   In 2014-2017, the growth rate of the sales revenue of China’s personal care products (7%) far outweighed that of the sales volume (1%). This may reflect that the products have started moving towards the high-end rank, fueling APG consumption. The higher level of segmentation of the personal care market imposes new opportunities for APG downstream markets, as consumers tend to choose milder surfactants for infants and children-use.    

   In the agrochemicals industry, APG is used to replace alkylphenols and branched-chain benzene surfactants in pesticides, which are degraded slowly and the degraded alkylphenols and fatty amines are more toxic and are potentially harmful to environment. Currently in China, APG is mainly used in glyphosate formulation, with an average annual consumption of 20 kt, which is expected to increase by 10% year on year in the following three years. The application of APG will likely to infiltrate into other major pesticides.

   It is estimated that China’s APG consumption will register a growth rate of 12% in 2018-2022, but the growth pace will slow down year on year to approach that of the downstream detergents at 8% (according to the 13th “Five-Year Plan” for detergents). APG downstream consumption is expected to increase in the coming years, with a faster growth rate seen from the household cleaning and agrochemical sectors, which will take up a share of 46% and 25% respectively in domestic APG consumption by 2022.  

Feedstock and production process

   APG is synthesized from natural fatty alcohols and glucose. Natural fatty alcohols are mainly imported from southeast Asia, which boasts competitive feedstock palm oil.    Deyuan (China) Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., Cognis, Wilma, Sasol and Zhejiang Jiahua Group are major suppliers of fatty alcohols. Glucose is mainly supplied by Xiwang Group, which is specialised in the production of food grade glucose.

   At present, industrialized APG adopts the Fischer synthesis method, which is divided into one-step method and two-step method. The products obtained by the one-step method, which is currently the world’s leading APG production process are of good quality, light colour, no odor and have wider applications and huge demand in the high-end market. Shanghai Fine Chemical Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Wanqi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Yangzhou Chenhua New Materials Co., Ltd., Zhejiang Transfer Group and CYG (Jiacai) Shenzhen Co., Ltd. all use the advanced one-step process.

APG prices

   In 2014-2017, China’s domestic APG prices were largely unchanged at RMB15 000/t, despite the fluctuations in feedstock fatty alcohols prices, which surged from RMB8 700/t to RMB21 700/t from end 2015 to early 2017. Suppliers failed to pass on the incremental feedstock costs to their consumers as a rapid increase in APG supply endowed strong bargaining power to major downstream buyers.  

Impacts of APG applications on other surfactants

   APG is mainly used in the daily chemicals industry to reduce the irritancy of formulations, while the washing properties still depend on other surfactants, such as AES, LAS and AEO. Therefore, APG needs to be compounded with other surfactants. Adding APG into the formulations will not affect the addition ratio of other surfactants and will not result in stiff competitions with other surfactants. 

   In the agrochemicals industry, since APG is environmental-friendly and degradable, it finds increasing applications in pesticides to replace taurine polyoxyethylene ether which has strong synergistic effect but is toxic and irritating. APG has been widely used in glyphosate formulations.

APG imports and exports

   At present, China is completely self-sufficient of APG and only needs to import a very small number of special grades. In addition, BASF's APG products, which account for around 30% of the Chinese market share are produced in China and are in no need of importing. In 2017, around 20% of China’s APG products (about 200 kt), mainly including pesticides grade APG 0810 were exported to Russia, Japan, South Korea, India and the US. With other countries becoming more aware of this green surfactant, China’s APG export volume is expected to increase in the coming years.