Knowde Enhanced TDS
Identification & Functionality
- Chemical Family
- Cleaning Ingredients Functions
- Technologies
Features & Benefits
- HII Features
- Benefits
- Boosts stain removal performance
- Effective on a wide variety of stains
- Compatible with all surfactant types
- Enhances cleaning at low temperatures
- Cold-processable
- Effective in machine or hand wash
- Active on the EU DID List – can be used in EU Ecolabel formulations
- CLP Free (within monodose capsules <25ml)
- Majority Bio-based (50-95%)
- Stain removal
Applications & Uses
- Markets
- Applications
- Home Care Applications
- I&I Cleaning Applications
- Use Level
- 3 - 5%
- Applications
- Liquid laundry detergents
- Liquid laundry concentrates
- Liquid laundry monodose formats
- Stain-removal pre-treatments
- In-wash stain removers
- Fabric capsules (pods)
- Fabric detergents
- Auxiliary fabric product
Cirrasol Expel is a versatile, cold-processable, liquid additive. It is fully compatible with anionic, nonionic and cationic detergent systems. It can be added to existing detergent or stain remover formulations for improved cleaning performance without the need for reformulation.
Properties
- Physical Form
Regulatory & Compliance
- Certifications & Compliance
Technical Details & Test Data
- Cirrasol Expel in Liquid Monodose Formulations
Cirrasol Expel is fully compatible with water-soluble PVA films and is therefore ideal for use with liquid monodose detergent formulations as demonstrated in Figure 1.
Figure 4: Demonstration of PVA film compatibility with neat Cirrasol Expel
Performance in a liquid monodose was assessed when Cirrasol Expel was added into a wash in a typical liquid monodose formulation (see Formulation section, HC/LF/30). As propylene glycol is usually the main solvent in liquid monodose formulations, 5% of the total propylene glycol in the formulation was replaced with 5% Cirrasol Expel. The formulations were again tested using standard pre-stained SM-04 swatches in 40°C washes.
As demonstrated in Figure 2 the addition of 5% Cirrasol Expel to the liquid monodose formulation improved stain removal across all stain types by an average of 13%.
Average stain removal performance for a liquid monodose formulation, with additional 5% propylene glycol or with addition of 5% Cirrasol Expel.
The recommended usage level in detergents is 3 - 5%, which equates to 1.5 – 4.0g per wash. Performance of Cirrasol Expel can vary depending on the detergent’s surfactant blend.
- Cold Wash Performance in Detergents
The performance of Cirrasol Expel in low temperature wash cycles was demonstrated using four common types of liquid detergent formulations with 5% Cirrasol Expel added. The ultra-concentrated, concentrated and APG-based control formulations had 5% water added and the liquid monodose control formulation had 5% propylene glycol added to keep the surfactant levels between the test formulations and the controls equal.
Ultraconcentrated APG-based Concentrated Liquid Monodose Surfactant content, % 55 25 32 68 Dosage per wash, ml 28 80 55 30 Four types of liquid laundry detergents tested, shown by surfactant content and dosage level
Formulations were tested using standard pre-stained SM-04 swatches in a Miele W1945 machine with 3.5 kg white cotton ballast on a 20ºC wash temperature cycle. To test the performance of Cirrasol Expel in short wash cycles the ultra-concentrated and APG-based formulations were dosed in 20 minute cycles and the concentrated and liquid monodose formulations were dosed in standard 2.5 hour cycles at 20ºC.
As demonstrated in Figure 3 below all formulations that included Cirrasol Expel showed an increase in stain removal at low temperatures. The improvement in stain removal was evident in both the 20 minute wash cycles and the two and a half hour wash cycles. Addition of Cirrasol Expel improved stain removal performance by an average of 8 – 24% across the four detergent formulations, proving that Cirrasol Expel’s stain removal performance is unaffected by low temperatures and shorter wash cycle times.
Figure 3: Average stain removal performance in a 20ºC wash for ultra-concentrated, APG-based, concentrated and liquid monodose detergent formulations with and without addition of 5% Cirrasol Expel in 20 minute washes and 2.5 hour washes
- Cirrasol Expel Performance in Top Loaded and Front Loaded Machines
Cirrasol Expel was tested for improved stain removal performance in two different types of laundry machine. A top loader machine that is common in both US and Latin America regions and a front loading high efficiency machine common in Europe. As can be seen in Figure 4, Cirrasol Expel was shown to provide a performance benefit at 1% in the formulation (Table 3) in both types of machine and as expected the performance delivered is not dependent on machine type. There was a 13.2% stain removal improvement in the top loader formulation and a 7.1% stain removal improvement in the front loader formulation.
Average stain removal of a bio-liquid laundry formulation in the washing machines with and without 1% Cirrasol ExpelProduct Concentration (%) Anionic Surfactants 11.2 Synperonic™ A7 2.4 Cirrasol Expel 1.0 Soap 0.8 Mixed Enzyme (Protease, Amylase, Lipase) 0.4 Bio-liquid laundry formulation containing 1% Cirrasol Expel
A further breakdown of the performance of Cirrasol Expel can be seen in Figures 5 and 6. The graphs are separated into top loader and front loader machines respectively and show a breakdown of the individual stain types. The resulting data shows that the mechanism of improvement is not limited to an individual stain type and is more a synergistic improvement with the formulation.
Figure 5: Average stain removal of the individual stain types at 40°C in a top loader washing machine
Figure 6: Average stain removal of the individual stain types at 20°C in front loader washing machines
- Cirrasol Expel in Hand Wash Liquid Detergent Formulations
The performance of Cirrasol Expel in low temperature hand wash process was demonstrated using 5 different commercial brands of liquid detergent formulations with 1% Cirrasol Expel added. As demonstrated in Figure 10 all formulations that included Cirrasol Expel showed an increase in stain removal when compared against the same detergent formulation without Cirrasol Expel. Addition of 1% Cirrasol Expel into the formulations shows excellent increase in average stain removal performance, in all of the formulations tested, ranging from 28 to 56%. From the data there are two formulations which gave very high stain removal improvement percentages at 55.5 and 56.4% and the other 3 formulations gave more consistent improvements at around 28 to 35%.
Figure 10: Average stain removal performance of 5 different commercial brands of liquid hand wash detergent formulations with and without the addition of 1% Cirrasol Expel
As can be seen below there is a noticeable difference in stain removal performance across the 3 individual stain types. Detergent formulations that contain 1% of Cirrasol Expel show increased performance ranging from 26-36% when tested in a cold water hand wash process.
Average stain removal performance of a basic formulation developed by Croda with and without the addition of 1% Cirrasol Expel- Boost the Power of Pre-Treatments
The cleaning performance of Cirrasol Expel formulated in a pre-treatment was evaluated using pre-stained SM04 swatches across the three main stain types.
The swatches were treated for 3 - 4 minutes with 1 ml of stain remover formulation containing either 10% glycol ether solvent or 10% Cirrasol Expel (see Formulation section, HC/LF/31) before washing at 40°C using 80 ml of a standard powder detergent (ECE-2) containing no bleach or optical brighteners. The color change of the swatches was measured with an X-Rite Color i5 spectrophotometer to determine the stain removal after washing.
Cirrasol Expel improved stain removal an average of 16% as shown below :
Average stain removal performance for a stain remover formulation, with addition of 10% solvent or 10% Cirrasol Expel
Cirrasol Expel performed better stain removal by an average of 2 ΔY across the three main stain types when compared to the solvent
Average stain removal performance by stain type for a pre-treatment formulation including either 10% solvent or 10% Cirrasol Expel- Improved Stain Removal in Detergents
Cirrasol Expel in Detergent Formulations
The stain removal power of Cirrasol Expel when added to liquid detergent formulations was evaluated across three common types of detergents (See Formulation section, HC/LF/27, HC/LF/28, HC/LF/29). Cirrasol Expel was added to ultra-concentrated, concentrated, and alkyl polyglucoside (APG)-based detergent formulations at a level of 5%, with 5% water added to the control formulations in order to ensure equivalent surfactant dosing.
Ultra-
ConcentratedConcentrated APG-based Surfactant content, % 55 32 25 Dosage per wash, ml 28 55 80 Table 1: Three types of liquid laundry detergents tested, shown by surfactant content and dosage level Pre-stained color swatches were washed in 40°C cotton wash cycles with each of the detergents dosed as recommended. Wash testing used 3.5 kg white cotton base load and a Miele W526 EcoComfort consumer washing machine. Nineteen different standard cotton stain swatches (SM-04) from the Center for Testmaterials
(CFT) were used, with stains ranging across the three main types – bleach-sensitive, enzyme-sensitive, and surfactant-sensitive (Figure 1). After washing the swatches were line dried at 20°C, 50% relative humidity. The color change of the swatches was measured with an X-Rite Color i5 spectrophotometer to determine the stain removal after washing.
Figure 1: SM-04 stain monitor sheet from CFT before washing
Results from the testing indicated that addition of Cirrasol Expel boosted stain removal performance when compared to the control by an average of 8 - 20% across all three detergent formulations (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Average stain removal performance for each of the three detergent formulations, with and without 5% Cirrasol Expel
The overall performance of a detergent on each stain type can be further analyzed. The performance of the APG-based detergent shows that addition of Cirrasol Expel to the formulation gave an average of 5 – 12% improved stain removal across the three stain types (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Average stain removal performance on each stain type for the APG-based detergent, with and without 5% Cirrasol Expel.
- Effect on Fabric
The effect on fabric when Cirrasol Expel was left to soak was also assessed. A solution of 15% Cirrasol Expel with surfactant in water left to soak was compared to a benchmark commercial stain remover. The two solutions were applied to a standardized set of dyed and non-dyed fabrics for 15 minutes. The fabrics were then rinsed and left to dry and examined for staining, color loss and damage. Figure 14 shows the results of the testing. Cirrasol Expel gave results comparable to the commercial benchmark formulation with no increase in staining, color loss or damage.
Fabric treated with a benchmark stain remover compared to fabric treated with a Cirrasol Expel solution.
The recommended usage level in stain removers is 5 - 10%.
- Outstanding Compatibility
Effect on Foaming
Addition of Cirrasol Expel to laundry detergents, which tend to be low foaming, will not give an increase in foaming. The effect Cirrasol Expel has on foaming was assessed using a SITA Foam Tester, with 1 g/l w/w detergent at 20°C. 250 ml of solution was stirred for 10s at 1200 rpm and 20 readings were taken to measure the foam that was generated. As indicated in Figure 16, a low foam formulation generates less than 200 ml of foam and a high foam formulation can be expected to generate at least 700 ml of foam. Adding Cirrasol Expel to a detergent formulation gives a slight defoaming effect.
Foam volume for detergent alone and detergent with 5% Cirrasol Expel added
- Formulating with Cirrasol Expel
Cirrasol Expel is a cold processable liquid with no hazard classification, and can be added to existing detergent formulations without the need for reformulation. It is low color (max 100 APHA) (Figure 17), pH 6, and gives a clear, stable formulation.
Cirrasol Expel is a low color additive (max 100 APHA)
It is best suited to high surfactant formulations as they will help Cirrasol Expel solubilise in water. Cirrasol Expel is compatible with anionic, nonionic, and cationic surfactants and also enzyme formulations. Recommended dosages are 3 -5% for detergents (1.5 – 4.0g per wash) and 5 – 10% for stain removers.
Product % in Formulation Per wash (g) Detergents 3 - 5 1.5 - 4.0 Stain Removers 5 - 10 - Recommended dosage for detergents and stain removers
Packaging & Availability
- Country Availability
- Regional Availability