Open innovation is an important component in our research and development strategy. We make full use of our global R&D network to provide innovative laundry, cleaning, and hair product lines. While the inclusion of external partners in our innovation process is of huge importance for many of our product developments, the involvement of our customers, as source of new ideas and guidance, serve us to drive our research and project development work forward at pace.
PARTNERSHIP WITH CONSUMER BRANDS
Do you have any innovative idea for new products or solutions to meet existing challenges? Learn more about the technical challenges we face in our business and share your idea with us.
Our Technical Challenges
Product Performance
Fragrances
Process Technologie
Packaging
Sustainable Long-lasting fragrances
Once the consumer has chosen a product with a pleasant smell for laundry or home care and hair care, he wants to enjoy this scent as long as possible or even when he puts on his clothes next time.
So we are interested in technologies to extend the time period of scent perception, e. g. to achieve long lastingness. One approach could be encapsulation technologies, or fragrance precursor e. g. molecules which are not volatile but release the volatile fragrance upon use or through interaction with an external trigger.
New sustainable/biotechnology-based fragrance ingredients
Due to increasing sustainability awareness, fragrance ingredients alternatives to petro-based, e. g. based on renewable feedstocks / biotechnology, are of high interest.
Malodor removal
With the growing urge to reduce washing temperatures due to new fibers and to save energy, time and money, we want to identify new approaches towards better and more effective removal of malodors (with focus on malodor sweat) at low temperatures without the need for a pretreatment. Also, we are looking for new approaches which can reduce toilet and kitchen malodors.
AI for fragrance design
Fragrance creation is an area that requires deep technical knowledge, the ability to predict human response to complex combinations of ingredients and the need for originality.
The goal of our work is to create new and novel fragrances that perform well technically, but more importantly, smell good and are unique.
Therefore, we are looking for AI solutions that will helping Perfumers be more creative and productive.
Technical ideas for monodose product forms and proposals for their industrial realization
Monodose product forms such as water-soluble caps, tablets or toilet rimblocks have become very popular because of their convenience and the proper dosing of detergents in the respective application. We are searching for new dosage forms that come in attractive design and that could serve as a basis for innovations across multiple categories. The proposal should meet mass market requirements such as competitive costs and scale-ability to high volumes.
New and robust In-line sensors for production of liquid products
In the scope of Industry 4.0, we are looking for new out of the box sensor technologies that could be easily integrated in a production environment and thus could serve for inline analysis of physical and chemical parameters.
New chemical and process technologies for gel-like products
Product esthetics plays an important role in our categories. We are interested in new chemical and processing technologies that can form new solid gel-type structures that fit to our categories. Ideally those technologies would enable shape solid and esthetically appealing water-soluble gels.
Energy-reduced way of producing solid wash powders
Solid wash powders require high amounts of energy for the drying of the active washing ingredients. Industrial drying is typically done with hot air that is generated by natural gas combustion. We are searching for energy efficient ways to produce solid detergents out of highly concentrated liquid ingredients.
Flexible fiber-based packaging
Henkel is looking for scalable solutions of fiber-based flexible packaging for our solid and liquid-based products, with the right barrier properties, child safety elements, and full recyclability along with paper waste stream.
Reusability/Refillability
Henkel is interested in finding novel reuse or refill models for our wide array of packaging materials. We want to boost sustainability and circularity of our packaging products by promoting multiple use and reuse, and are looking for technologies that would help us achieve these goals.
Product Performance
Low-temperature (skin) fat removal
Skin fat is deposited on all skin-near textiles. As it is quasi-solid at low temperatures, it is hard to remove in cold water. With the growing urge to reduce washing temperatures due to new fibres and in order to save energy, time and money, we want to identify new approaches towards better and more effective removal of solid fats at low temperatures without the need for a pretreatment.
New sustainable routes to LAS-like surfactants
LAS (linear alkylbenzene sulphonate) is the most important surfactant used in today's laundry detergents. Due to depletion of oil reservoirs, high volatility of oil prices and increasing sustainability awareness surfactants alternatives to LAS, e. g. based on renewable feedstocks are of high interest.
Bleach stabilization in liquid detergent formulations
Bleach is one of the major contributors for stain removal in solid laundry detergents. It is desired to incorporate bleach (active oxygen) in liquid detergent formulations. The challenge is the combination with enzymes in such formulations to avoid bleach decomposition and destruction of enzymes at the same time. Sought after is a method to stabilize H2O2 or active oxygen precursors in a liquid detergent environment containing surfactants and ensure compatibility with enzymes.
Removal of burnt-in soil in automatic dishwashing
Burnt-in soil is very hard to remove in automatic dishwashing applications. We are interested in identifying new approaches towards improved cleaning performance on burnt-in soils. Typically, burnt-in soils contain proteins, carbohydrates, Maillard reaction products thereof and fats. They occur for example in/during meals "au gratin", scrambled eggs, baking of cakes or roasting of meat. Usually, cookware (pans, casseroles) made from glass, metal or ceramics is affected.
Synthetic fiber catcher
One of the biggest challenges is to reduce microplastics in wastewater. Synthetic fibers are dissolved from textiles during the normal washing process and thus end up in wastewater. We are looking for substances that can catch or bind synthetic fibers in the washing process to prevent them from entering the wastewater.
Controlled release solution for final rinse cycle
To improve the product performances of laundry additives, we are interested in substances which can pass through the main wash cycle and release in a controlled manner until the final rinse cycle.
Replacement for Eitdronic acid in automatic dishwashing
In automatic dishwashing, there are different cleaning dimensions: removal of food residues from dishes (cleaning), giving shine (anti-limescale) and keeping the shine (anti-corrosion). Etidronic acid helps in all three categories, as it works as a as peroxide stabilizer (bleachable soils), as a scale inhibitor and as a chelating agent/corrosion inhibitor. However, Etidronic acid is not biodegradable, and according to our sustainability strategy it should be replaced by biodegradable materials.
Fragrances
Sustainable Long-lasting fragrances
Once the consumer has chosen a product with a pleasant smell for laundry or home care and hair care, he wants to enjoy this scent as long as possible or even when he puts on his clothes next time.
So we are interested in technologies to extend the time period of scent perception, e. g. to achieve long lastingness. One approach could be encapsulation technologies, or fragrance precursor e. g. molecules which are not volatile but release the volatile fragrance upon use or through interaction with an external trigger.
New sustainable/biotechnology-based fragrance ingredients
Due to increasing sustainability awareness, fragrance ingredients alternatives to petro-based, e. g. based on renewable feedstocks / biotechnology, are of high interest.
Malodor removal
With the growing urge to reduce washing temperatures due to new fibers and to save energy, time and money, we want to identify new approaches towards better and more effective removal of malodors (with focus on malodor sweat) at low temperatures without the need for a pretreatment. Also, we are looking for new approaches which can reduce toilet and kitchen malodors.
AI for fragrance design
Fragrance creation is an area that requires deep technical knowledge, the ability to predict human response to complex combinations of ingredients and the need for originality.
The goal of our work is to create new and novel fragrances that perform well technically, but more importantly, smell good and are unique.
Therefore, we are looking for AI solutions that will helping Perfumers be more creative and productive.
Process Technologie
Technical ideas for monodose product forms and proposals for their industrial realization
Monodose product forms such as water-soluble caps, tablets or toilet rimblocks have become very popular because of their convenience and the proper dosing of detergents in the respective application. We are searching for new dosage forms that come in attractive design and that could serve as a basis for innovations across multiple categories. The proposal should meet mass market requirements such as competitive costs and scale-ability to high volumes.
New and robust In-line sensors for production of liquid products
In the scope of Industry 4.0, we are looking for new out of the box sensor technologies that could be easily integrated in a production environment and thus could serve for inline analysis of physical and chemical parameters.
New chemical and process technologies for gel-like products
Product esthetics plays an important role in our categories. We are interested in new chemical and processing technologies that can form new solid gel-type structures that fit to our categories. Ideally those technologies would enable shape solid and esthetically appealing water-soluble gels.
Energy-reduced way of producing solid wash powders
Solid wash powders require high amounts of energy for the drying of the active washing ingredients. Industrial drying is typically done with hot air that is generated by natural gas combustion. We are searching for energy efficient ways to produce solid detergents out of highly concentrated liquid ingredients.
Packaging
Flexible fiber-based packaging
Henkel is looking for scalable solutions of fiber-based flexible packaging for our solid and liquid-based products, with the right barrier properties, child safety elements, and full recyclability along with paper waste stream.
Reusability/Refillability
Henkel is interested in finding novel reuse or refill models for our wide array of packaging materials. We want to boost sustainability and circularity of our packaging products by promoting multiple use and reuse, and are looking for technologies that would help us achieve these goals.
SUBMIT YOUR IDEA
Do you have any innovative idea for new products or solutions for existing challenges? Share it with us! Because we appreciate your work and reward you with a fair share of what the innovation is worth.
We are looking forward to your solutions!