Rhamses X: Driving the Biosurfactants Revolution Together
The future of specialty chemicals is circular, biodegradable, and highly efficient. These future technologies are being systematically advanced at the Evonik Innovation Factory. Home to the Biosurfactants Solutions Team, this interdisciplinary unit channels its expertise into the company-wide, cross-divisional Rhamses X team. Working in close collaboration with business lines and experts from a wide range of fields, they are building a powerful innovation ecosystem. This ecosystem translates pioneering biosurfactant technology into innovative, marketable solutions for a variety of industries in record time.
What are rhamnolipids and why Evonik?
Rhamnolipids are high-performance biosurfactants obtained from regional sugar through a natural fermentation process. Unlike conventional surfactants, they require neither fossil raw materials nor tropical oils. Their major advantage over traditional surfactants: they are biodegradable and show high environmental compatibility with aquatic organisms. They also deliver excellent results in cleaning performance. In addition, rhamnolipids are very mild to the skin and gentle on surfaces such as plastic.
In 2022, the starting signal for a pioneering project was given at Evonik’s Slovakian site in Slovenská Ľupča: the construction of a new plant for the production of rhamnolipids. Production started earlier than planned. This makes Evonik the world's first company to manufacture rhamnolipids on an industrial scale.
Production plant
The world's first production facility for rhamnolipids was established in Slovenská Ľupča.
Speed through internal synergies
Innovative, bio-based products do not happen overnight. They are based on years of research, technological excellence, and a deep understanding of biological systems. This is exactly the foundation that characterizes Evonik's rhamnolipids. At the same time, our ambition is to become faster in the future – by systematically utilizing existing knowledge in the spirit of combinatoric innovation, consistently networking internal strengths, and putting the market transfer on the fast lane.
With Rhamses X, we promote close collaboration across multiple business lines, regions, research, and service units. Instead of isolated development, we rely on an integrated model: technologies are co-developed, transferred to different applications at an early stage, and expanded into tailored solutions for various markets. This creates synergies that shorten development times and better exploit innovation potential.
Conclusion
We see ourselves as an interdisciplinary hub and engine for sustainable growth. Within the Innovation Factory, our task is to establish new forms of collaboration together with the business lines and to strengthen partnerships along the entire value chain. In doing so, we validate applications far beyond cosmetic solutions – including health care, industrial cleaning, and the paints and coatings industry. We systematically combine our internal technological excellence with external impulses from science and industry. Within the Innovation Factory, we prove every day that ecological responsibility and economic speed go hand in hand.
