ABSTRACT
Surfactants are the basic active ingredients of any detergent used in both domestic and industrial applications. They are manufactured in large quantities [1], used ubiquitously by many people and industries, and disposed of after use into the environment. Worldwide the annual consumption of surfactants cannot be determined exactly because of the lack of knowledge of their content in commercial products and because market estimates are limited only to some specific application sectors. At any rate, the worldwide annual consumption of surfactants in 2000 can reasonably be estimated to have been about 10-11 million tons, excluding soap, whose estimation is around 9 million tons [2]. Only a few types of surfactants are currently used in large quantities on the market. Excluding soap, which is definitely the most widely used anionic surfactant, the market is dominated by linear alkylbenzene sulfonates (LAS) and alcohol derivatives, which comprise alcohol sulfates (AS), alcohol ether sulfates (AES), and alcohol ethoxylates (AE) (Table 1). A multitude of other different surfactants are present on the market, some relevant in volume, such as alkylphenolethoxylates (APE), lignin, and petroleum sulfonates, and others important as specialities, such as cationics and amphoterics. A breakdown by geography and applications shows that nearly 60% of surfactants, excluding soap, are consumed in the developed countries of Europe, North America, and Japan, and more than 50% are used in households (Figs. 1 and 2).
