Soap or Liquid Detergent Making

Corn oil is 99% triglyceride, so you make soap from it just like you would from animal fat. See attachment

http://waltonfeed.com/old/soaphome.html

Oh by the way detergent is different than soap, there are many tpe of detergents, sulfonates, phosphates, etc..

Hello RCE,

Thank you for your detailed response. I just would like to know if this lye you have mentioned is 100% sodium hydroxide or lesser. Is it in pellet form?

Thanks

edbesas

As indicated in the web page, he uses a 50% solution. Lye a common name for sodium hydroxide. The fact is most any Alkali Hydoxide will work, you just need to hydrolyze the glycerine to fatty acid bond. Soap is just a alkali metal fatty acid precipitate. what you do not want is alkaline earth metals like calcium (or even worse magnesium) contaminating, or any high charge to hydrated radius cations (iron is a good example). These woud form a very low water soluble precipitate. The soap works by ionizing in water to form sodium cations and fatty acids. I would assume for economy you would want to purchase pelet sodium hydroxe and then add your own water, if you know how to handle it (the reaction is highly exothermic).

Sir, with regard to the liquid detergent, I understand that the materials used differ from that of soap. Is the procedure for making it the same as of soap? I have encountered the term soap and detergent builders, are these part of the essential ingredient or just optional, and what material are they made of? Also, how liquid detergent or soap is made? Is this simply just a mixture of detegent or soap dissolved in water?

edbesas

Well just from the saponification process, potassium hydroxide is used to make softer soap used for liquids soap, sodium for harder forms for bars soap. Beyond simple saponification. there are oils and glycerine added, fragrances, and other agents to obtain the smells and textures desired for a liquid soap. Attached is an example of a simple liquid soap manufacturing process.

http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/liquidsoap/ss/basicliquidsoap.htm

The larger hydrated radius to charge ratio mean potassium solution favor a liquid form more sodium does. An even smaller hydrated radius to charge ratio, e.g. calcium, will favor a low solubility solid, i.e. soap scum.

Detergents are more complicated they are a whole group of molecules that have some similar behavoral characteristics, typically a hydrophobic tail and a hydrophilic head. The head can be an alcohol, ethers, amine, sulfate, phosphate, etc.. A detergent will react to form micelles and solubilize, much like a ligand, other molcules into solution. They also function as surfactants and greatly reduce surface tension. The strength of the properties of a detergent are determined depending on the application. Attached is a link to some information about the some common components in detergents.

http://www.laundry-alternative.com/detergent_chemistry.htm

Very interesting link RCE. Thanks

-John

Even among the monovalent cations, potassium is preferred over sodium. Thus, use potassium hydroxide (caustic potash, cheap, and readily available in pelletized form in 400 lb drums) in sllight stoichiometric excess over the oil (ie - >1:3) based on the respective formula weights to insure complete hydrolysis of the triglyceride.

The way my mom made it was as follows:

1) Kill a hog in the winter, because that cold kill parasites.

2) Build a fire using hardwood such as ash, or oak.

3) Cut the fat off and place it into a cauldrine (a big cast iron pot that hangs over the fire.)

4) render (melt) the fat. Actually any fat will work.

5) pour water through the cold ashes (potash). This makes lye.

6) pour the lye into the cooled fat until the fat makes a thick cream about in consistancy of hand lotion. You can see when all of the fat has changed.

7) let it cure for about a month.

Use the corn oil for something more useful. If you add ethanol to the cornoil you can make deisil fuel and glycerine. The glycerine will settle to the bottom.

Can I add some ifnfo to the interesting posts:

--------------------------

Heavily eroded margins may be causing consternation among surfactant producers,but many have realized that going green can help wash away their troubles

Andy Brice/London

JUST AS raw material costs and energy prices have increased over the past year, so too has the trend toward more sustainable and innovative products within the surfactants sector.

Led by consumer demand and pressure from retailers, producers are developing more environmentally friendly products and investing heavily in new formulations.

"Sustainability is nothing new, but it has really taken hold in the past year," says Brian Sansoni, vice president of US-based trade group The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA). "This is a significant time for surfactants and for the cleaning industry in general there have always been innovations, but manufacturers are now being encouraged to talk more about them. The whole sustainability umbrella poses both challenges and opportunities, although with the rise in energy and fuel prices, there are probably more challenges at the moment."

The past year has been particularly galling for surfactant producers, who have been unable to reclaim their rapidly depleting margins, despite repeated attempts to raise their prices. As with all other markets, the firming energy complex has taken its toll. Crude oil prices continue to set new records, having surged to near $100/bbl from around $60/bbl last January. Gasoline numbers, meanwhile, are currently hovering around the $800/tonne mark from $540/tonne at the start of 2007.

"Rising raw material costs such as those for ethylene and lauric oils, as well as energy prices, are a serious burden on each company, especially in the specialty chemical industry," says Josef Koester, marketing director for Care Chemicals NAFTA, at German specialty chemical firm Cognis. "Although we have made all efforts to absorb and countermeasure rising costs to contain price increases to customers, increases were unavoidable, in order to cope with the significant economic impact from the cost increases."

Please, i will need more clarification on this issue. I've made about 2 batches of liqiud soap with the following chemicals: sulphonic, metasilicate,sodium sulphate,lye(caustic) ,HEC-10 . Now my major problem are:

My detergents does not really foam as much as it should

Is potassium hydroxide beter than sodium hyroxide or sodium carbonate?

Do i need to add foam buster and which is better?

Which preservative i better to use?

Potassium hydroxide is better for liquid soap, sodium is for hard (bar type) soap.

Thanks, but does that affects the foamimg ability?