Bio-surfactant push: what Evonik’s REWOFERM RL 100 offers home and personal care brands

Evonik’s REWOFERM RL 100 is a rhamnolipid-based biosurfactant aimed at formulators of dishwashing liquids and household cleaners who want milder, more sustainable performance. The ingredient targets high foam, strong cleaning and a much lower environmental footprint than conventional surfactants.

Edited by ad hoc news New Releases & Launches Desk. Reviewed before publication on 06/15/2026 at 8:45 PM ET. Details in the imprint.

With consumer brands under pressure to clean up their ingredient lists, Evonik is betting on biosurfactants: REWOFERM RL 100 is the group’s flagship rhamnolipid-based surfactant for high-foaming cleaning products, positioned as a biodegradable alternative to conventional petrochemical surfactants for home and personal care formulations. According to company information, the glycolipid surfactant is derived from renewable raw materials and designed for use in hand dishwashing liquids, hard surface cleaners and certain personal care products where mildness and strong foam are both critical.

What REWOFERM RL 100 is designed to do

REWOFERM RL 100 belongs to Evonik’s Care Solutions portfolio and is classified as a rhamnolipid biosurfactant, a type of glycolipid produced via fermentation rather than by petrochemical synthesis, which allows the ingredient to be marketed as based on renewable feedstocks and readily biodegradable in the environment, according to Evonik’s own product documentation on the official product page. The company highlights that the surfactant is intended to deliver strong foaming and wetting performance even in hard-water conditions, while remaining sulfate-free and suitable for formulations that carry eco-labels or meet stricter retailer sustainability scorecards.

From a formulation standpoint, Evonik states that REWOFERM RL 100 can be used either as a primary surfactant or as a co-surfactant in combination with anionic or nonionic systems, giving formulators flexibility to tune viscosity, foam profile and cleaning performance in liquid detergents and cleaners for consumer and commercial markets. In technical literature, the group also points to a favorable dermatological profile compared with some traditional surfactants, so that rhamnolipids can help reduce skin irritation in frequent-use products like hand dishwashing liquids and household sprays, an aspect that is increasingly relevant as retailers push for “skin-friendly” and “sensitive” claims on mass-market cleaning lines.

Beyond household products, Evonik markets the rhamnolipid platform, including REWOFERM RL 100, as part of its broader transition toward biobased specialty chemicals, a segment that the company has repeatedly identified as a growth area in its strategy updates for the Nutrition & Care division, which includes Care Solutions. The fermentation-based production route is intended to reduce reliance on fossil raw materials, and Evonik has previously communicated that its industrial-scale biosurfactant plant in Slovakia is powered using certified renewable electricity to support a lower overall carbon footprint for the resulting ingredients, positioning them as attractive options for consumer goods companies seeking to reduce scope 3 emissions in their supply chains.

Market researchers expect bio-based specialty chemicals and cosmetic ingredients to grow at a mid- to high-single-digit annual rate over the next decade as brand owners consolidate suppliers and prioritize ingredients that support “natural origin” and biodegradability claims, with biosurfactants such as rhamnolipids frequently cited as one of the most promising subsegments in this shift, according to a recent industry analysis on bio-based cosmetic and personal care ingredients published via GlobeNewswire. For Evonik, products like REWOFERM RL 100 fit into that trend by offering established household and personal care brands a way to differentiate their formulas without sacrificing the foaming and cleaning performance that consumers expect from mainstream detergents.

Formulators still have to balance cost, supply security and regulatory considerations when shifting toward biosurfactants, and Evonik positions its rhamnolipids as drop-in or near-drop-in solutions that can be incorporated into existing formulations with limited rework. Independent technical platforms that track excipients and specialty ingredients for pharma and personal care applications describe biosurfactants such as rhamnolipids as an emerging but increasingly mature class of surfactants, noting their combination of biodegradability, mildness and stable performance in a range of pH and temperature conditions according to the specialist resource PharmaExcipients. That combination could help biosurfactant-based formulas gain share in premium and mass-market segments as brand owners respond to regulatory tightening on microplastics, ethoxylates and other legacy ingredients across key markets in Europe and North America.

Within Evonik’s portfolio, REWOFERM RL 100 is one of several biosurfactant offerings and supports the company’s stated aim of growing its “Next Generation Solutions”, products that contribute measurably to sustainability for customers and end-users, as a larger share of group sales over the medium term. Shares of Evonik Industries AG (ISIN DE000EVNK013) most recently traded on Xetra in Frankfurt at around EUR 19 in mid-June 2026, reflecting investor attention to the company’s progress in specialty chemicals and more sustainable product lines, including biosurfactants.

REWOFERM RL 100 in brief: the core data

• Product: REWOFERM RL 100
• Manufacturer: Evonik Industries AG
• Category: New Release / Launch (biosurfactant ingredient)
• Launch date: First introduced in the mid-2020s as part of Evonik’s biosurfactant platform (exact date not disclosed)
• MSRP / Price: Not publicly listed; pricing typically negotiated directly with B2B customers
• Availability: Sold globally to home and personal care manufacturers via Evonik’s Care Solutions business
• Target audience: Formulators of household cleaning, dishwashing and personal care products seeking bio-based, mild surfactants
• Key differentiator / USP: Rhamnolipid biosurfactant produced via fermentation from renewable raw materials, offering strong foam, good cleaning performance and high biodegradability

This article was a.i.-assisted and editorially reviewed. Product information without warranty; prices and availability may change at short notice. Not investment advice and not a buy or sell recommendation. Trading involves risk up to and including the total loss of invested capital.