- The NextLab portfolio represents a significant milestone in the homecare industry: now, it is possible to formulate the highest-performance detergents while reducing their environmental impact
- NextLab is a new family of products consisting in three types (NextLab-R, NextLab Low Carbon and NextLab-C) which has the same outstanding properties as traditional LAB while minimizing its carbon footprint
Sustainability has been one of Cepsa Química’s goals since its beginnings. The company is the largest LAB producer in the world and a pioneer in the production of biodegradable products and the development of safer and more environmentally friendly technologies. Today, sustainability is driving the homecare industry, as final consumer’s awareness about climate change and respect for the environment, demands more sustainable and environmentally friendly products for home care and cleaning. That is why NextLab was born.
“All the products of the NextLab portfolio have the same properties as PETRELAB, Cepsa Química’s LAB, but are manufactured in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way. NextLab is designed to help our customers manufacture products with a lower carbon footprint and aimed at caring for the environment and protecting nature”, stresses Paloma Alonso, EVP Chemicals at Cepsa.
Sustainability without compromising performance
Cepsa Química understands that it is critical to develop and produce pioneering chemicals to help its customers to continuously improve their formulations.
Aligned with the market needs, NextLab has the same outstanding properties as traditional PETRELAB while minimizing its carbon footprint. LAB is the raw material of LAS, the most used surfactant in household detergents due to its excellent washing performance, flexibility, and processability, and it is used in any detergent format. It is used both in traditional formats (powder or bar detergent) and in more sophisticated products (single-dose capsules or highly concentrated liquid detergents). Because of that, from the total surfactants employed in the formulation of household detergents, LAS represents more than 60%.
The NextLab portfolio, Cepsa Quimica’s journey to Sustainabilit
NextLab products are dedicated to the Home Care Industry, which, along with the Chemical sector, is looking for new, more sustainable products, with the critical priority to decrease GHG emissions into the atmosphere to reduce climate change impact. Leading Home Care Companies have challenging targets dedicated to this matter, and Cepsa Química has developed a Multi-Generational Plan to evaluate different technologies and identify key projects to develop more sustainable products to address customers’ needs. NextLab is a new family of products, born sustainable, consisting of three main types of NextLab, each one of them with its own identity and objective.
- NextLab - R, available worldwide, is the LAB produced with renewable raw materials, based on mass balance approach, with reduced GHG footprint considering “cradle to gate” and “end of life” analysis compared to its fossil counterpart based on the use of alternative feedstocks (using preliminary data, as Life Cycle Assessment validation is underway).
- NextLab - Low carbon, LAB produced with a GHG footprint reduction considering “cradle to gate” and “end of life” analysis thanks to the replacement of conventional energy with alternative sources to decrease plant emissions during the production process (using preliminary data, as Life Cycle Assessment validation is underway). This material is currently available for the North American market.
- Finally, still under development, NextLab – C, the LAB that will be produced with circular raw materials, dedicated to increase the industry circularity reducing waste.
