A new tough protease that enables easy use of proteases in liquid laundry detergents
MALENE IRMING JØLCK
Novozymes A/S, Denmark
Abstract
Traditionally enzymes were reserved for premium concentrated laundry liquid detergents, often due to lack of enzyme activity after storage in water-rich detergents. With the introduction of Novozymes Progress® Uno, the inclusion of a protease to all tiers of the liquid detergent market is now possible.
Progress® Uno is significantly more stable compared to other market proteases, and is compatible with high water content in the detergent, high pH, high storage temperatures and even strong chelators. For the detergent producers, this enables formulation flexibility as well as cost savings by reducing the need for extra added stabilizers. Progress® Uno is easy to implement – also in tough detergents. As such it can be used by detergent producers who never have used enzymes before, or producers with little experience with enzymatic technologies.
INTRODUCTION
Formulating and producing a laundry liquid detergent is often a complex process. Enzymes are added as natural catalysts enabling faster reactions in the wash. Due to their efficacy enzymes are only included in small part per volume in the entire detergent composition. Enzyme classes traditionally used in liquid detergents are primarily proteases, lipases, amylases, mannanases, cellulases and pectate lyases.
Proteases are often considered the first step towards an enzymatic detergent with the benefits of increasing the laundry detergents effect on stain removal. Traditionally, proteases are challenged in tough water-rich liquid detergents, and stabilizing a protease by adding chemical stabilizers is both time-consuming and cost-intensive. The insufficient stability of proteases has therefore limited the use of proteases in detergents with high water content (water content > 70-80%). Especially southern Europe, emerging markets like Africa and Asia are known to have to have high water content; but it also goes for areas in southern and northern America.
Progress® Uno is so robust that it excels in almost any kin ...
