Novel detergent molecules and methods for producing such detergent molecules by dimerizing and alkoxylating butadiene with one or more reactant alkanol selected from the group consisting of a primary alkanol and an .alpha., .omega.-diol, hydrogenating the alkoxydimerization product to produce a hydrogenation product selected from the group consisting of primarily 1-alkoxy substituted 2-octene and primarily 1-hydroxy-alkoxyoctane, and hydroxylating the 1-alkoxy substituted 2-octene to produce primarily 1-hydroxy-9-alkoxy nonanes.