Unilever China releases new laundry capsule

Unilever China launched a new laundry capsule using carbon captured from industrial emissions on Thursday, which marked World Earth Day.

The company said the capsule is the world's first cleaning product with recycled carbon surfactant, an ingredient for creating the foam and cleaning action. Surfactant is typically made from fossil fuels.

The innovation process for the capsule featured a collaboration with LanzaTech and India Glycols. The former relied on biotechnology to capture waste industrial emissions at its Beijing Shougang LanzaTech plant before converting the emissions to ethanol. India Glycols then converted the ethanol into ethylene oxide, a key feedstock for making surfactants.

Unilever uses the surfactant in its new OMO laundry capsules, which are manufactured in its factory in Hefei province. The company said the product will come at no extra cost to consumers.

The creation of this new product falls under Unilever's Clean Future strategy, which aims to eliminate fossil-fuel based chemicals from the company's cleaning and laundry product formulations by 2030.

Jin Xinyi contributed to the story.