Surfactant Insights Podcast

Surfactant Insights Podcast

With 40 years of expertise in science communication, Tekno Scienze Publisher (TKS) continues to evolve, providing high-quality information to a global audience of scientists, managers, and industry leaders. Based in Italy, TKS publishes three leading scientific journals - Chimica Oggi - Chemistry Today, Agro Food Industry Hi Tech, and Household and Personal Care Today - as well as the digital -only Italian publications Beauty Horizons and Nutra Horizons, known for their innovative and interactive content. TKS now expands into the world of podcasts with The Surfactant Insights Podcast, an in-depth series dedicated to the surfactant industry. The podcast is hosted by Neil Burns, Managing Partner of Neil A. Burns LLC, an expert in the surfactants and oleochemicals sector. He produces major surfactant conferences, authors the Surfactants Blog, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of Household and Personal Care Today. The Surfactant Insights Podcast covers technical, commercial, and economic aspects of the surfactant value chain, particularly as it impacts household and personal care consumer products. Each five-minute episode will dig into a subject of current topical interest for manufacturers, users, and sellers of surfactants. We are open to requests for subject matter to cover on these podcasts. We hope you enjoy and find them useful.

Episodes

October 29, 2025 8 mins
In this podcast, we look at the concept of circularity and how it applies to the current surfactant industry. We also consider recent innovations in incorporating circularity into surfactants.  

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In this podcast, we look at the roughly 15% of the market for surfactants that is in personal care and cosmetics. These products are used by consumers every day and the surfactant provides cleaning, emulsification, foaming and other sensorial and functional benefits. It is a good market for new suppliers with new ingredients to get started in.

Subscribe and follow 'The Surfactant Insights Podcast':
You Tube (https://youtu.be/8mCatnnG...
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In this podcast, we look at the key commodity drivers of surfactant costs and how different types of surfactant respond to cost variability. We consider how recent disruptions in the supply chain have impacted business strategies in the surfactant value chain.

Tekno Scienze Publisher is an academic publisher in Italy. It publishes 3 scientific journals: Chimica Oggi – Chemistry Today, Agro Food Industry Hi Tech, and Household and Pe...
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September 10, 2025 7 mins
In this podcast, we cover the 25 – 30% of the surfactant market (by weight) that is not directed to cleaning. In this segment, there are many markets including : Food, Construction, Crop Protection, Emulsion Polymerization, Lubricants, Metalworking Fluids, Oil & Gas, Textiles, Paints and Coatings, Pulp and Paper and Other. These markets are generally high margin specialty markets which require a deep applications understanding ...
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August 27, 2025 7 mins
In this podcast, we look at some key regulations affecting the household and personal care markets, which every surfactant manufacturer should be aware of.  These include dioxane limits in consumer products and surfactants, the EU’s CLP and Detergents regulations, TSCA, the INCI system, China’s CSAR and of course EUDR. Plan early and get expert advice before getting started. There’s a lot to deal with.  

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Here we look into an extremely important region for surfactant consumption, production and innovation. Southeast Asia produces around 90% of the world palm and palm kernel oil, critical starting points for much of the world’s surfactants. China has enormous and growing surfactant production capacity, currently far in excess of its demand. Other countries in Asia, particularly Korea and Japan are setting global trends for consumer p...
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This podcast is a sequel to Episode 1 where we started to discuss specialty surfactants.  Here, we go into more detail on the differences between commodities and specialties  We’ll also cover briefly some case studies and consider guidelines for companies wishing to transition all or part of their business mix to specialty surfactants.

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In this podcast we take a look at  the many recent sources of disruption which have impacted the surfactant supply chain on a global basis. How have these disruptions impacted the industry and how should companies deal with the current challenges and prepare for future unforeseen events?

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In this podcast, we examine the key drivers for bio-based and sustainable surfactants, such as consumer demand for eco-friendly products and stricter regulations. We’ll also explain the difference between "bio-based" and "biosurfactant" and provide examples of all the various types of surfactant which carry some type of “bio” label. 

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This episode looks at what makes a specialty surfactant so special and what makes it different from a commodity surfactant. We consider the different roles for these different types of surfactant and the different challenges in selling and marketing of each type. We also cover the markets where you would expect to see each type of surfactant and the process technologies used to make them.

Subscribe and follow 'The Surfactant Insight...
Mark as Played
The Surfactant Insights Podcast covers technical commercial and economic aspects of the surfactant value chain, particularly as it impacts household and personal care consumer products. Each five minute episode will dig into a subject of current topical interest for manufacturers users, and sellers of surfactants. We are open to requests for subject matter to cover on these podcasts. We hope you enjoy and find them useful.

The podca...
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