A new collaboration could accelerate the beauty and home care industry’s push toward defossilized raw materials.
Germany’s Zschimmer & Schwarz and U.K.-based deep-tech player ViridiCO2 Ltd. (trading as Viridi) have signed a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) to scale and commercialize CO₂-derived surfactants, leveraging captured carbon dioxide as a renewable carbon feedstock.
The agreement follows extensive trials by Zschimmer & Schwarz that identified multiple application pathways for Viridi’s proprietary catalyst technology. The goal: move from pilot validation to industrial-scale production, bringing CO₂-based surfactants closer to mainstream adoption across cleaning and personal care formulations.
For beauty and personal care formulators, the implications are significant. Surfactants remain one of the most carbon-intensive building blocks in shampoos, body washes and facial cleansers. Substituting fossil-derived carbon with captured CO₂ offers a pathway to measurable Scope 3 reductions—without requiring wholesale reformulation or new manufacturing infrastructure.
Viridi’s process integrates captured CO₂ directly into chemical manufacturing streams, positioning it as a drop-in solution for established specialty chemical producers. According to the companies, Zschimmer & Schwarz aims to leverage the technology to enhance both product sustainability profiles and production efficiency.
“This agreement represents a big milestone in our mission to help the chemical manufacturing industry, and ultimately, society to recycle CO₂ and eventually defossilize,” said Dr. Daniel Stewart, CEO of Viridi.
Matthias Hofmann, Ph.D., Director of Global R&D at Zschimmer & Schwarz, framed the partnership as part of the company’s broader strategy to expand its portfolio of sustainable and biodegradable solutions.
Founded in 1894 and still family-owned, Zschimmer & Schwarz operates 27 companies across 16 countries, supplying specialty chemical solutions to industries including personal care and cleaning. Viridi, backed by global investors, is positioning its catalyst platform as a next-generation enabler for lower-carbon materials across home, personal care, automotive and construction sectors.
For an industry under mounting regulatory and retailer pressure to decarbonize supply chains, CO₂-based surfactants may be moving from concept to commercial reality faster than expected.
