Rivertop Renewables’ sodium glucarate has achieved registration under the European Chemical Agency’s (ECHA) Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) regulation, which opens the door for the commercial deployment of products derived from sodium glucarate in markets across Europe, including Waterline® CI and Headwaters® corrosion inhibitor and Rivertop’s Riose® detergent builder.
According to Rivertop Renewables, sodium glucarate, based on glucaric acid, only recently became available in commercial quantities due to its breakthrough oxidation technology that can efficiently transform simple plant sugars into a variety of renewable chemicals with impressive cost and performance characteristics.
Following the REACH registration, two European customers of Rivertop are beginning trials of the company’s Waterline® CI, a high-performing alternative to phosphorous-based corrosion inhibitors in the water treatment industry. The registration will also make Rivertop’s Riose® detergent builder available to European formulators. Riose® is a sugar-derived chelant that reportedly meets high performance standards and enables a lower total cost of formulation for dishwasher and laundry detergents. Sodium glucarate is also a key ingredient in Rivertop’s Headwaters® corrosion inhibitor, which protects vehicles and highway infrastructure from corrosion caused by salt brine used to de-ice winter roads.
Rivertop plans to develop additional applications for sodium glucarate in food and canning operations, marine corrosion, and rust removal.
The REACH registration of sodium glucarate comes less than a year after the chemical became the first corrosion inhibitor to be listed on the U.S. EPA’s Safer Chemical Ingredients List (SCIL), a key requirement of chemicals that are used to formulate products with the agency’s popular Safer Choice label. Sodium glucarate has also been found to meet health and safety standards under Environment Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan and is listed on the Non-Domestic Substance List (NDSL).
