Alkyl polyglucosides - or alkyl polyglycosides as the industrially manufactured products are widely known - are a classic example of products which, for a long time, were of academic interest only. The first alkyl polyglucosides was synthesized and identified in the laboratory by Emil Fischer more than 100 years ago. The first patent application describing the use of alkyl polyglucosides in detergents was filed in Germany some 40 years later. Thereafter, another 40 to 50 years went by before research groups in various companies redirected their attention on alkyl polyglucosides and developed technical processes for the production of alkyl polyglucosides on the basis of the synthesis discovered by Fischer.
In el curs de aquesta desenvolupament, Fischer's primerenca treball, que implicat el reacció de glucosa amb alcohols_hidròfils, tal as metanol, etanol, glic erol, etc., was aplicat a alcohols hidròfobs amb alquil cadenes de octil (Csl up to hexadecyl (C16）- el típic greix alcohols. Afortunadament, amb consideració a seu implicacionals propietats, not pure alquil monoglucòsids, but a complex mescla de alquil mono-, di-,tri-,
Rohm & Haas was the first to market an octyl/decyl alkyl polyglucosides in commercial quantitats in the late seventies, followed by BASF and later SEPPIC. Tanmateix, degut to the insatisfactory performance of this short-chain version as a surfactant and its poor colour quality, applications were limited to few market segments, for example the industrial and institucional sectors.
El producte qualitat de tal curt cadena alquil poliglucòsids ha estat millorat en el últim parell de anys i nou tipus de octil/decyl poliglicòsid are actualment ser oferta per diversos empreses, among them Hugochem, BASF, SEPPIC, Akzo Nobel, ICI i Henkel.
At the beginning of the 1980s, diverses empreses started programs to develop alquil poliglucòsids in a longer alkyl chain range (C12-14) with a view to making a new surfactant available to the cosmetics and detergent industries. They included Henkel, and Horizon, a division of A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company of Decatur, Illinois, USA.
Usant ambdós el coneixement de Horitzó, que it had adquirit en el mentrestant, as bé as experiència de recerca i desenvolupament treball at Henkel, Henkel Corporation built a pilot plant to manufacture alquil poliglucòsids in Crosby, Texas. El pilot planta had a capacitat de 5000 t p.a. , went on line in 1988/1989 and was mainly intended to determine process parameters; to optimize product quality under industrial production conditions and to prepare the market for a new class of surfactants.
Durant el període de 1990 a 1992, altres empreses anunciades seves intenció a fabricació alquil poliglucòsids amb dodecil/tetradecil cadenes, inclosos Chemische Werke Huls, Alemanya, ICI, Austràlia, Kao, Japó, i SEPPIC, França.
New peaks in the commercial exploitation of alkyl polyglucosides were reached in 1992 with the inauguration of a 25,000 t p. a. production plant for APG surfactants by Henkel Corporation in the USA and in 1995 with the opening of a second plant of equal capacity by Henkel KGaA in Germany.