Published

April 16, 2025

Performance remains the top priority for consumers. According to Mintel’s 2024 laundry survey, stain removal continues to be the leading consumer demand, closely followed by odor removal. Similarly, Mintel’s 2023 dishwashing products report highlights that the primary consumer need is the ability to easily remove food residues and stains, followed by effective rinsing and grease-cutting power.

To enhance product performance, manufacturers can incorporate performance-boosting additives such as chelating agents, enzymes, and polymers. Historical data indicates a consistent increase in the number of new laundry products that include these performance additives each year. In this article, we will delve deeper into one specific performance additive – chelating agents.

The term "chelation" is derived from the Greek word "chele," meaning claw. This is because the arms of chelating agent molecules wrap around metal ions like a claw. By doing so, these molecules can moderate and control metal ions in water-based formulations. In the cleaning industry, metal ions, which have a positive charge, often interact with anionic surfactants. These interactions can reduce the cleaning performance of negatively charged cleaning agents. Therefore, the sequestration of metal ions is crucial for preserving and enhancing the performance of cleaning products. Various chelating agents are used in the home care industry, but today we will explore the main ones in more depth: 

• EDTA (tetrasodium ethylenediaminetetraacetate)
• DTPA (Pentasodium (carboxylatomethyl)iminobis(ethylenenitrilo)tetraacetate)
• MGDA (Alanine, N,N-bis(carboxymethyl)-, trisodium salt)
• GLDA (Tetrasodium N,N-bis(carboxylatomethyl)-L-glutamate)

Choosing the right chelating agent is crucial for successful formulation. Different chelating agents offer various benefits. For instance, EDTA is a strong chelator and has historically been widely used across the home care and industrial and institution (I&I) industries due to its good cost performance. DTPA, while similar to EDTA, is an even stronger chelator. It is an excellent option when exceptionally strong chelation is needed, and although it is used less broadly across cleaning applications, it has still found a place in many home care formulations.

However, neither EDTA nor DTPA are biodegradable or biobased. This lack of more sustainable chemistry alternatives created a market need for chelating agents that could deliver great chelating performance with strong sustainability profiles. Both MGDA and GLDA emerged from this need. These two chelating agents are both partially biobased,* readily biodegradable,** and moderately strong in chelating strength. While they both can be applied to all home care segments, they excel in different areas. MGDA can be granulated, and its solid form is commonly used in the automatic dishwashing industry as well as in many household cleaners. Conversely, GLDA excels in liquid applications and is often found in many laundry detergents and manual dishwashing products.

MGDA and GLDA also outperform non-biodegradable chelators like EDTA and DTPA in terms of enzyme stability. Enzymes, which often contain metal ions, are essential in cleaning products for breaking down stains. Strong chelators like EDTA and DTPA can disrupt enzymes by binding strongly to calcium, thus damaging enzyme structure. The logarithmic stability constant (log K) for EDTA calcium binding is around 10.6. In contrast, MGDA and GLDA have lower calcium binding constants, around 7.0 and 5.9 respectively. This means that EDTA binds calcium approximately 5,000 times more strongly than MGDA and 50,000 times more strongly than GLDA. This significant difference in binding strength also means that EDTA is much less compatible with enzymes because it is significantly more likely to compromise the enzyme by binding with the enzyme’s calcium ions compared to GLDA, or even MGDA. Therefore, not only are GLDA and MGDA more sustainable because of their biobased* content and biodegradability**, but they also enable other sustainable ingredients such as enzymes as well.  

BASF is dedicated to being a strong partner with our customers in the realm of sustainable chemistries. As experts in MGDA, we have been market leaders in sustainable chelates for many years. To further our commitment to biobased and biodegradable solutions, we are pleased to announce the expansion of our portfolio to include Trilon  G – GLDA. By offering both Trilon M and Trilon G, we can meet customer needs across all home care segments and formats, continuing to build a more sustainable future for our consumer base.

*The content of regenerative carbon for Trilon G is calculated to be 56% using internal testing methods. The percentage of renewable carbon is based on the following calculation: renewable carbon % = number of renewable carbon atoms/total number of carbon atoms (renewable and nonrenewable) x 100. The content of regenerative carbon for Trilon M was measured by ASTM D6866 method. 

**Readily biodegradable means the active ingredient (Trilon M) is known to be ≥ 60% degradation within 28 days according to the internationally recognized OECD 301F test. The Trilon G product itself has not been tested. Trilon G's active ingredient, glutamic acid diacetate (GLDA), is classified as readily biodegradable. The statement is derived from products of a similar structure and composition. 

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