Detergent Alcohols Outlook

At the time of writing, alcohol-based detergents, the market for alcohol-based synthetic detergents is also expanding. In the past, alcohol-based detergents were more expensive than linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), which is the major component of most synthetic detergents. The cost differential appears to be narrowing considerably and it appears that alcohol-based detergents will displace LAS at a faster rate in the future. Alcohols made by a modified oxo-process are less expensive than alcohols made by Ziegler chemistry and would appear to be in a favored raw material position.