Levulinic Acid Sales to Jump in Asia-Pacific (APAC) in Coming Years

The rising urbanization and increasing population of several countries have significantly accelerated the advancement of various industries such as personal care and cosmetics and food and beverages over the last few years. Moreover, with the surging disposable income of people, the demand for personal care products and processed food items is rising rapidly across the globe. This is, in turn, pushing up the requirement for levulinic acid all over the globe.

This is because the various derivatives of this compound such as ethyl levulinate, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF), sodium levulinate, diphenolic acid, methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF), and succinic acid are heavily used as additives in food and beverages, personal care items, and fuel. Additionally, the soaring investments being made in the research and development (R&D) activities pertaining to these products are further boosting the growth of the levulinic industry. These activities are aimed at finding new applications for these materials.

For example, the demand for sodium levulinate is rising tremendously, because of the increasing usage of the compound in preservatives in various food items and also as a skin conditioning agent in personal care and cosmetic products. The usage of this compound causes a considerable increment in the shelf life of these products. Another major factor propelling the sales of levulinic acid is the rising commercialization of several bio-based production methods by the manufacturers.

These commercialization activities are being done for reducing the manufacturing costs of levulinic acid and its derivatives and attaining economies of scale. Because of these reasons, the sales of levulinic acid are growing rapidly, which is, in turn, causing the expansion of the global levulinic acid market. As a result, the market, which had already reached a valuation of $27.2 million in 2019, is now predicted to attain a revenue of $60.2 million in 2030.

The levulinic acid market will progress at 8.8% CAGR from 2020 to 2030. Apart from food additives, levulinic acid is also widely used in agricultural products, plasticizers, personal care items, and fuel additives. Amongst these, the usage of the compound was the highest in fuel additives in the past. Due to the ability of the esters of this compound to considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they were extensively used as blend components in diesel formulations in the past years.

Geographically, the Asia-Pacific levulinic acid market will exhibit the fastest growth in the forthcoming years, according to the forecast of P&S Intelligence, a market research firm based in India. The ballooning requirement for the compound in the agriculture and personal care sectors is the key factor driving the advancement of the market in this region. The personal care sector has exhibited a sharp surge in region in the recent years and this trend will continue in the future.

This is because of the ballooning sales of various personal care items such as lipsticks, makeup removers, and perfumes, on account of the increasing disposable income and spending power of people in the developing nations of APAC such as India, Thailand, Indonesia, and China. As the derivatives of levulinic acid are heavily used as ingredients in these personal care products, the growing sales of these items are massively boosting the progress of the market in this region.

Hence, it can be said with certainty that the demand for levulinic acid will rise tremendously all over the globe in the upcoming years, mainly because of the growing usage of the derivatives of the compound in several end-use industries such as food and beverages and personal care and cosmetics and the rapid commercialization of various bio-based production methods.