How European biodiesel will help the surfactant industry
In November 2025 Verbio was awarded the ICIS Innovation Award for the “Best Product Innovation from a large company” for its revolutionary metathesis process. At that time, only a few people understood the disruptive potential of this process. This first-of-its-kind olefin metathesis process converts highly abundant seed oil based biodiesel into medium chain fatty acid derivatives – so far only available from coconut and palm kernel oil and always limited in quantity.
Starting regular operation in 2nd half of 2026, there is only little time to evaluate why Verbio received this price – and why it will have a significant impact on the surfactant business and chemical supply chains.
By reacting rapeseed methyl ester with ethylene we get 1-decene and 9-decenoic acid methyl ester (9-DAME). The last one is an unusual, lesser known and terminally unsaturated C10 fatty acid methyl ester. 9-DAME is an innovative molecule in the industry gaining significant interest in the R&D community and should be interesting for the business analysts as well. 9-DAME produced from local feedstock will make an impact, especially in the oleo chemical industry. Used as a feedstock for a hydrogenation plant, 9-DAME can be converted into C10 fatty alcohol (1-decanol) and C10 fatty acid methyl ester (caprylic acid methyl ester) commonly used medium range fatty alcohols and fatty acids, employed in many established surfactants.
Due to the recent events in the gulf region, many chemical supply chains are affected or even disrupted. 9-DAME produced from local oil crops can be used in a local for local approach to produce medium chain detergent alcohols and fatty acids, therefore addressing the need of chemical industry for stable, scalable and biobased supply chains. Today it is not clear how the situation in the Gulf region further develops. A shortage of fertilizer might affect palm oil and palm kernel oil availability and prices in the future, intensifying the need for alternatives. Already now we see a shortage of Naphtha for petrochemical production especially in Asia but even globally.
With the Verbio life chemicals products 1-decene, 9-DAME and the downstream products C10 fatty alcohol (1-decanol) and C10 fatty acid methyl ester (caprylic acid methyl ester), we will bring 60kta of renewable products to the market with a reliable supply chain, opening up a multitude of possibilities for the chemical industry, starting 2026.