Richard Lock, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director at Holiferm Ltd, explains how the company is playing a pioneering role in developing sustainable methods for the production of biosurfactants.

Holiferm Ltd was founded in 2018 as a spin-out from the University of Manchester in the UK. Its mission has always been to develop innovative and sustainable methods for the production of biosurfactants. The methods pioneered by the company have been engineered to remove petrochemicals from the production process, thereby making a lasting positive impact on numerous sectors in the chemical manufacturing industry.

Now in its seventh year, Holiferm has so far taken its first process for sophorolipid biosurfactants – surface-active glycolipids produced by non-pathogenic yeast species – from laboratory trials, through pilot scale tests, and into commercial production. As well as having a bespoke research and development facility in Manchester, where its novel processes are trialled and perfected, the company currently produces sophorolipids at its own 90,000 sq ft commercial plant in Wallasey, UK.

The Wallasey commercial plant, which opened in February 2023, has a current capacity of 1,600 tonnes of product per year. Thanks to the company’s unique technology and approach, the cost of manufacturing is very low and highly sustainable.

As Richard Lock, Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director says, referring to the relatively modest £8 million that was required to build and equip the Wallasey commercial plant, “Holiferm is now able to produce less expensive and more sustainable biosurfactants than its competitors, for a lower overall investment.”

This claim is achieved by using the company’s patented technology that is integrated into a fully continuous and circular production process.

Pushing technological boundaries

Holiferm’s current range of commercialised sophorolipid biosurfactants is based on a wild-type yeast, which is placed into a stainless-steel bioreactor and fed a two-stage diet. First, the yeast is given a diet of vegetable oil and sugar, which allows the organism to replicate and grow in biomass.

Richard Lock is keen to point out that all of these resources are natural, everyday materials.

“This is the type of yeast that you might find naturally in honey,” he explains. “And the vegetable oil – it’s the same oil that you’d use to cook your chips in your kitchen at home – and the sugar is the same sugar that you’d put in your tea!”

Once the yeast has reached its target biomass and the conditions within the bioreactor are just right, it is switched to a tailored diet that induces the yeast to produce the desired sophorolipid molecules. As shown in Figure 1, the mixture is then passed through a patented integrated gravity separation technology, labelled Gravisep, which enables cost competitive large-scale production of the biosurfactant products. This unique process transforms conventional batch fermentation into an efficient continuous and circular process.

“It’s the Gravisep that allows us to milk the microbe,” says Richard. “That core technology provides us with the ability to induce liquid phase separation. This means it can take any two liquids and separate them in solution. In our case, we keep the microbes in solution and use Gravisep to separate out the sophorolipids. Then we can put the yeast back into the bioreactor, and use the same yeast population all over again for the next batch. This gives us a circular process that is cost effective and entirely sustainable.”

Currently, Holiferm is thought to be the only company producing sophorolipids in this way and, especially compared with competitor companies that employ only single-use microbes, the continuous and circular process is believed to be far more cost and resource-efficient, as well as being more environmentally sustainable.

Holiferm’s kiloton scale commercial plant for the production of sophorolipid biosurfactants is the first and largest of its kind, but the company is not stopping there. The company is dedicated to pushing technological boundaries that provide ever greater efficiencies and ever more optimised engineering processes.

Supported by expertise in biotechnology and process engineering, alongside its patented technology, Holiferm is able to develop green manufacturing processes that surpass the state of the art in productivity and cost efficiency. It is worth noting that although the company opened the Wallasey commercial plant two years ago to produce sophorolipids, in fact they see these molecules as a proof of concept – they are just the start.

Richard explains, “We chose sophorolipids as our initial commercial enterprise because they are good molecules to prove that our technology and our integrated approach work, but actually our technology and approach would work on any two liquids, and they can be applied to a wide range of verticals.”

In fact, Holiferm’s continuous and circular approach could be applied to a great many microbes, and an even greater range of bio-based extracellular molecules.

Current product range

Biosurfactants comprise a group of diverse amphipathic molecules with distinct chemical structures and properties. Amphipathic compounds are used as surfactants because their unique structure, containing both a hydrophilic (water-loving) and hydrophobic (water-hating) part, allows these molecules to readily accumulate at interfaces between different phases (e.g. between water and oil). This effectively reduces surface tension and enables functions such as wetting, emulsification and dispersion, all of which are the primary roles of a surfactant. Biosurfactants can be produced by several microorganisms, and they are increasingly being preferred to synthetic surfactants because of their microbial origins, biodegradability, low toxicity and overall sustainability.

Holiferm is playing a key role in accelerating the transition to a biosurfactant-based economy by using renewable materials to manufacture non-toxic ingredients for industrial and consumer products. The company’s products are being quickly adopted by numerous distributors and environmentally conscious product manufacturers across a variety of industry sectors.

The company offers low foaming and high foaming versions of all of its sophorolipids. The low foaming product is directly obtained from the fermentation process and is not modified further – it can be used for a variety of applications, including hand dish-washing liquids, facial cleansers, shampoos and shower gels. The high foaming product has undergone a mild chemical transformation which allows generation and stabilisation of a greater amount of foam. This too can be used for a variety of applications, from detergents to car washing products.

Most recently. Holiferm expanded its portfolio of mild, eco-friendly biosurfactants with the launch of a new and innovative granulated surfactant on a mineral carrier, called GranuSurf. GranuSurf delivers high-performance cleaning properties, and it offers a powerful yet sustainable alternative for formulators seeking effective, nature-based surfactants for homecare or industrial cleaning products.  It comes pre-blended with common laundry and surface cleaner builders, making it easy to apply for superior degreasing and organic stain dispersion, while its eco-friendly credentials – 100% natural, biobased, readily biodegradable, palm-free, vegan-suitable, renewable, preservative free – ensure that it meets the EU ECOLABEL standards.

According to Richard, “The GranuSurf product is currently patent pending, and we believe it represents another leap forward in sustainable biosurfactant technology, ultimately enabling our partners, customers and collaborators to create greener, more ethical cleaning products.”

All of the individual sophorolipid biosurfactants produced by Holiferm are chemically indistinguishable from those produced by other companies. However, the unique continuous and circular process used by Holiferm enables a higher concentration of active product. As shown in Table 1, all of the products in the company’s current range are produced with around 60% active – this compares favourably with other suppliers, which typically yield 50% or lower active material in their finished products.

The technologies and processes used by Holiferm also enable them to offer remarkable flexibility to their customers. For example, they can provide high lactonic or high acidic sophorolipids on request. This type of flexibility, combined with high percentages of active product, and impressive efficiency and sustainability profiles, have earned the company a number of awards in recent years.

For example, Holiferm won Innovation of the Year at the Chemical NorthWest Awards in 2022 for its pioneering production method. In 2023, the company subsequently won Manufacturer of the Year at the Chemical Business Association (CBA) Awards for the progress it had made with its technological advances, and for the opening of its commercial plant in Wallasey. In 2024, Holiferm won even further recognition with the Bio-Based and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) Demeter Innovative Product award, which acknowledged the company’s increased production capacity (from 1,100 to 1,600 tonnes per year).

Holiferm’s recent run of accolades has recognised the company’s pioneering approach.

Sustainability

In November 2024, the company announced a pioneering achievement for green biotechnology with the successful development of a scope 3 cradle to gate carbon negative side stream-produced sophorolipid, generated from free fatty acid distillate – a by-product of rapeseed oil refinement.

This means that Holiferm has the technical expertise and ability to produce sophorolipids using second-generation sugar and oil streams, and that the end product acts as a carbon sink – recapturing two tonnes of carbon dioxide for every tonne of product manufactured. This is a remarkable achievement for green biotechnology, using side streams from agricultural processing and entirely removing the impact of farming from carbon, land and water perspectives.

“Unfortunately, it is just a concept molecule at this stage,” says Richard. “We have proved that we can produce a fully sustainable, carbon-negative product at extremely low cost, but current regulations require us to submit the product and process for REACH approval, which is going to take some time – it’s a little frustrating, because of the remarkable features of this molecule, but we are celebrating the concept and we hope that at some point in the future we will be able to commercialise it alongside our other products.”

Clearly, producing products that act as a carbon sink is the holy grail of modern chemical manufacturing. However, while we wait for this novel product to be submitted for approval by the regulatory authorities, it is good to know that Holiferm’s existing range of commercially produced biosurfactants are achieving impressive sustainability goals of their own.

In September 2024, Holiferm published their carbon footprint as being 1.16 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of active sophorolipid, or 0.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of finished product (both on a cradle to gate basis). This compares favourably to petrochemical and palm derived surfactants, which typically have a carbon footprint of at least 2 to 3 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of product. This means that switching from those older options to Holiferm’s new sophorolipid alternatives can offset the production of 1 to 2 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of finished product.

While this already represents a massive improvement over conventional chemicals, Holiferm is committed to continually improving its sustainability profile, with impressive targets to further halve the company’s carbon footprint by mid-2025. In addition, in recognition of the importance of other environmental impacts, the company Is also dedicated to:

• Producing 100% biodegradable products that are totally bio-based and tropical oil free
• Using a low energy process utilising gravity-based separation
• Using no solvents or toxic chemicals
• Minimising the volume of water consumed per tonne of product.

Ultimately, Holiferm is targeting a net zero impact product with a cradle to grave approach, contributing directly to the creation of a world where our actions have no adverse impact on the environment around us.

What’s next?

While keeping a keen eye on reaching its sustainability targets, Holiferm is working towards further capacity increases to meet demand for its existing range of biosurfactants. However, perhaps even more exciting is the reminder that the company’s technology can be applied to a wide range of different biosurfactants, and many other lipid molecules.

Through its own independent research and numerous collaborative partnerships across the world, Holiferm is continuing to discover new applications that will offer viable and affordable choices to its customers. Most imminently, this includes mannosylerythritol lipids (MELs) and rhamnolipids – both biosurfactants that have been studied for their antimicrobial and anti-biofilm properties, and which are produced by particular species of fungi and bacteria, respectively. Holiferm hopes to release MELs and rhamnolipids to the market to complement their sophorolipid range in the near future.

“We have the capability to scale up and commercialise a broad range of biosurfactant molecules,” concludes Richard. “Our technology is not limited to yeasts – we can apply it to a range of microbes and the same cost, efficiency and sustainability benefits will be brought to bear.”

If you are interested in obtaining samples of the company’s biosurfactants, or if you would like to speak to one of Holiferm’s experts about formulating with biosurfactants for a range of applications, get in touch. The team would be delighted to talk to you.

Contact:

Richard Lock

Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director

Holiferm Ltd.

Manchester, UK

T; +44 (0)7830405678

E: Richard.Lock@holiferm.com

www.holiferm.com

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