Study Material of Soap & Detergent Industry
Study Material of Soap & Detergent Industry
Study Material of Soap & Detergent Industry
CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY - I
Soap and Detergent Industry, Unit- VI
Baishakhi Kayal
Lecturer in Chemical Engineering
CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY I
Unit- VI
INTRODUCTION
Soap is one of the oldest chemical produced over two thousand years ago by
saponification animal fats with the ashes from plants. Although soap are mainly
used as surfactant for washing, bathing cleaning, but they are also being used in
textile spinning and as important constituent of lubricating grease. Now soap and
detergent have become integral part of our society. There has been continuous
development Soap making technology starting with batch kettle making process in
cottage industry and to present continuous modern soap making process using
either fat saponification or by fatty acid neutralization utilizing a wide variety of
natural and synthetic feed stock. Soaps are also key components of most
lubricating grease which are usually emulsion of, calcium, sodium, lithium soaps
and mineral oil.
Synthetic detergent is an effective substitute of washing soap have become now
very popular replacing the soap. All soaps and detergents contain a surfactant as
their active ingredient. However detergent has better cleaning properties than soap
because good detergency and has increasingly popular. Environmental issues
during initial stages because of non-biodegradable nature of the detergent caused
major concern. With the production of linear alkyl benzene there has been
continuous increase in detergent production because of the biodegradable nature of
the detergent.
Soap and Detergent differ in their action with hard water. Soap form insoluble
compounds with hard water containing calcium and magnesium ions which
precipitates and reduce foming and cleaning while detergent may react with the
ions responsible for hardness but the resulting product is either soluble or
colloidally dispersed in water .
SOAP
Soap is a surface active agent or surfactant. The soap molecules contain both
hydrophilic part and hydrophobic part. The hydrophilic part of soap is carboxylate
head group and hydrophobic part is aliphatic chain. The dirt or grease is cleaned by
key mechanism. Soaps are used for human comfort, cleanliness and for industrial
use.
Soap is the alkali salt of fatty acid. Some of the important fatty acids used in
soap manufacture are lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic
acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, reicinolenic acid. Fatty acids have varying
chain length and may be saturated or unsaturated. Fatty acid content of the oils
vary. Unsaturated fatty acids give softer soap with lower melting point and are
less stable while soap from saturated fatty acids are firm, slowly soluble, milder
and have good detergency . Total fatty acid is considered beneficial ingredient of
toilet soap. Property of soap depends on the chain length of fatty acids in blend,
amount of saturation and unsaturation, formulation and soap structure. A
judicious blend of oils and fats are necessary to obtain soaps of ideal properties.
A good soap should have high water softening as well as good detergency
properties. Oils made of fatty acids with 12 to18 carbon atoms are suitable for the
manufacture of soap . Generally low grade fats and oils are used to make soaps.
Oils and fats can be classified either lauric or nonlauric oils /fats. In soap making
palm oil, coconut oil, caster oil,neem oil, kernel oil, ground nut oil, ricebran oil and
animal fat especially tallow are used. Fatty acid present in tallow are mysteric acid,
palmitic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid whereas the coconut oil contains
lauric acid, mysteric acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid. Different oils produce soaps
of varying hardness, odour and lathering properties. Normally 75-85% tallow and
15-25 % coconut oil is used in soap making. C12 and C14 soaps lather quickly but
they produce an unstable, coarse bubble foam while C 16 and C18 lather slowly but
lead to stable, fine bubble foamed.
Caustic soda is almost universally used for common laundry soaps , whereas
caustic potash is used for soft soap manufacture. Soda ash , which is another
common additive , is generally used for saponifying fatty acids and as building
materials in laundry soaps.
Other building materials or additives which are commonly used are sodium
silicates , trisodium phosphate , tetrasodium pyrophosphate , sodium
hexametaphosphate and sodium tripolyphosphate. Apart from reducing the cost of
soap , some of the builders contribute to the detergency properties of soap.
Various other miscellaneous additives are used in small amounts for different
purposes which include anti – oxidant , perfumes , optical bleaching agents, etc.
Kettle process may be further classified as (a) Cold process, (b) Semi boiled
process and (c) Full boiled process.
The full boiled process is the most popular of the kettle processes since glycol is
recovered as a byproduct in this process. The product obtained contain the
minimum amount of unsaponified matter and less than 0.1 % free alkali.
The saponification reaction takes place in large cylindrical tanks with conical
bottoms. Heat is supplied by open and occasionally closed steam oils. The tanks
are provided with delivery pipes for fats, water, lye, brine and niger left from a
previous stock. Fresh fat and alkali are added slowly over the niger of the previous
batch.
The reaction is slow at first, but picks up gradually. The heat of reaction is 272
kJ/kg of fat saponified. The strength of the alkali used is about 30 ﹾBe’ and the ratio
of the fresh alkali solution to fat is about 3/5 by weight. A number of operations is
carried out before the soap is settled in the kettle and the liquor is drawn out from
below. These operations are known as changes and the saponification of the greater
part of the fat is known as killing change.
Following saponification, the soap is grained off by the addition of brine, whereby
the soap rises to the top and the liquor is withdrawn from the bottom. The soap is
washed a number of times with fresh brine, followed by further boiling with water
to complete the process.
The final operation in soap making, known as fitting operation, consists of boiling
with soap with brine or water to bring down the free alkali content to a low value.
The soap content of a kettle at the end of all the operations is around 50%.
Counter-current washing: In modern practice, the spent lye from the kettle, with
high glycerine content is pumped directly to the glycerine recovery plant and the
washings from the subsequent “changes” are passed counter-current to the soap
mass from kettle to kettle to be enriched with glycerine. It is possible to recover
95% of the glycerine this way.
Finishing of neat soap: The neat soap from the pan is subjected to a sequence of
operations like mixing, drying, cutting, and stamping before the product is ready
for the market.
Crutching: Various types of builders, colours, and perfumes are mixed with the
next soap in a vessel called the crutcher, which is nothing but a cylindrical steam-
jacketed, dished-bottom vessel provided with an agitator for uniform mixing of the
ingredients.
Cooling: The product from the crutcher is then ready for cooling to get soap in a
block form. Two methods are used, frame cooling or press cooling. However, these
methods of cooling have been abandoned because of the inherent draw backs of the
batch mode of operation and the time taken. Now, cooling and drying are carried
out in a single step by either spray drying or flash drying.
In flash drying, the soap is pre-heated to around 2000 C and forced under pressure
through a nozzle into a flash chamber. A flash dryer has a high pressure pump,
strainer heat exchanger, flash chamber, nozzles, expansion valves and product
collecting and dust collecting arrangement. Flash drying may be carried out either
at atmospheric pressure or under low pressure. An important development in this
field is the Mazzoni process. Most laundry soaps have a soap content of around 65
to 66%, the rest being moisture and non-soap additives.
Categorization of Soap
Soaps has been graded in terms of total fatty matter. Soap may be categorized as
toilet soaps or bathing soap or specialty soap like baby soap (comparatively of
high purity), transparent (soap with high glycerine content), herbal and
antibacterial soap. Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) has categorized on the basis
of total fatty matter (TFM): Grade I (Minimum 76%), Grade II (minimum 70%),
Grade III (minimum 60%), bathing bar (minimum TFM 40%). Soft soap are
made by using potassium hydroxide instead of sodium hydroxide. Bathing bars
may be made from partial soap and partial detergent or wholly synthetic
detergent
Toilet soaps: they are usually made of oils, of which around 20% is coconut oil.
The moisture content of soaps is around 12-15% and free alkali less than 0.1%.
Milled toilet soaps have better perfume and better surface finish than the
corresponding framed soaps.
Castile soap is used as medicinal soap and for infants. It is made from pure olive
oil by the cold process.
Carbolic soaps are usually commercial soaps with a little percentage of of cresylic
acids or tar acids to impart disinfectant property to the soap.
Transparent soaps are usually made of tallow and coconut oil. They are generally
made by semi-boiled process. Alcohol and glycerol in the ratio of 2:1 are added to
the saponified batch and the soap mass is then framed.
Shaving soap and creams: are made from a fat mixture containing not less than
one third of stearic acid and 20 to 30 % coconut oil. This type of soap must
produce abundant and stable lather and should not be irritating to the skin . Hence
free alkali should preferably be zero.
Shampoos: are usually made from soft, soluble soaps obtained from potassium
salts of coconut oil fatty acids. The clarity of shampoo is due to the addition of a
sequestering agent like ethylene diamine – tetra – acetate. The soap content of
shampoo is around 25 %.
GLYCERINE RECOVERY
Glycerine is separated from soap with the help of the insolubility of soap in sodium
chloride solution. The glycerine concentration in spent in spent lye is usually
between 10 to 15 %. The other constituents are 10 to 20 % salt , 0.25 % soluble
soaps , about 0.25 % unused alkali ( Na2O), both as free caustic and sodium
carbonate , other organics consisting of resinous and nitrogenous compounds ,
colour bodies between 0.10 to 0.20 % and some small amount of sediment.
The purification of spent soap lye involves four basic steps : (a) separation of
entrained and as much of the dissolved soap as possible , (b) neutralization of the
used alkali , (c) precipitation , coagulation and removal of the remaining soluble
soaps and other organic impurities and (d) precipitation and removal of the excess
coagulating chemical.
The spent lye is pumped from the soap kettle to a storage tank for a holding period
of 3 to 4 hours during which a portion of the dissolved soap, along with entrained
soap and unsaponified matter form a layer on the top and is returned periodically to
the soap kettle.
Soap Removal: The spent lye contains a small quantity of dissolved soap
which must be removed before the evaporation process. This is done by treating
the spent lye with ferrous chloride. However, if any hydroxide ions remain the
ferrous ions react with them instead, so these are first removed with hydrochloric
acid:
HCl + NaOH → NaCl + H 2O
The ferrous chloride is then added. This reacts with the soap to form an
This precipitate is filtered out and then any excess ferrous chloride removed with
caustic:
The second and third steps, i.e , neutralization of the unused alkali and coagulation
of impurities , constitute what is known as the first treatment . The precipitation
and removal of the coagulant is known as the second treatment.
In the first treatment the alkalies are neutralized either sulphuric or hydrochloric
acid and the soaps and organic impurities are precipitated with aluminium
sulphate.
the cake is washed with water to reclaim as much glycerine as possible. The
washings are returned to the treatment tank.
The treated spent lye is concentrated in a double effect evaporator (if high pressure
steam is available) or single effect evaporator (if low pressure steam is available).
The evaporator is of the standard vertical tube type, with vertical tubes 38 mm to
75 mm in diameter and 1.25 mm in height and a salt collecting box at the bottom.
Evaporation is carried out at 88 kPa to 95 kPa usually with the help of two stage
ejector. The slurry containing salt (solid content 40 to 50 %), is collected in the salt
box. The salt box can be isolated from the system by means of a valve and the
slurry discharged to a slurry tank for the subsequent separation of salt and mother
liquor.
Salt removal: Water is removed from the lye in a vacuum evaporator, causing
the salt to crystallise out as the solution becomes supersaturated. This is removed
in a centrifuge, dissolved in hot water and stored for use as fresh lye. When the
glycerine content of the solution reaches 80 – 85percent, it is pumped to the
crude settling tank where more salt separates out.
DETERGENT
INTRODUCTION:
STRUCTURE OF DETERGENT:
Detergent molecules have ionisable inorganic groups such as SO3- , COO- , CO- ,
NH+ , NH2- , Cl- etc. which are soluble in water and the long chain
CLASSIFICATION OF DETERGENT
IONIC DETERGENT:
The ionic types are further classified into anionic and cationic.
ANIONIC DETERGENT:
When the long hydrophobic part of the detergent molecule behaves as an anion in
aqueous solution, the compound is called an anionic detergent. Example of anionic
detergent is Dodecyl benzene sulphonate. The detergency of the anionic detergent
is vested in the anion. The anion is neutralized with an alkaline or basic material, to
produce full detergency. Typical anionic detergents are alkylbenzene sulfonates.
There are three kinds of anionic detergents: a branched sodium dodecylbenzene
sulfonate, linear sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, and soap. The alkylbenzene
portion of these anions is lipophilic and the sulfonate is hydrophilic.
CATIONIC DETERGENT:
Non ionic detergents have same hydrophobe- hydrophil balance but they differ
from ionic detergents in that they have a multiplicity of oxygen groups or linkage
that make them water soluble. Example is Ethylene oxide adducts. This detergent
consists of no ionic constituents which are ionically inert. The vast majority of
all non-ionic detergents are condensation products or ethylene oxide with a
hydrophobe. This group of detergents is enormous, and the permutation endless.
These are characterized by their (net) uncharged, hydrophilic head groups. They
are based on polyoxyethylene, Chaps, glycosides (i.e. octyl-thioglucoside,
maltosides), bile acids such as DOC, lipids (HEGAs), or phosphine oxides.
Zwitterionic detergents possess a net zero charge arising from the presence of
equal numbers of +1 and -1 charged chemical groups.
AMPHOLYTIC DETERGENT:
Another class of detergent is ampholytic. These contain both cationic and anionic
groups. They are electrically neutral in an aqueous solution. They behave as
cationic in acid pH and anionic in alkaline pH. Example is N-fatty-ẞ amino
propionic ester.
Some of the enzymes used in detergent are protease, amlases, liapse and celolases.
The enzymes catalyses the breakdown of chemicals through addition of water and
helps in the removal of soils. Polymers and enzymes play important role in
improving the detergency. Polymers help in soil removal, prevent insoluble salt
incrustation work as anti-soil re-deposition, inhibit dye transfer. Use of optical
brightener enhance the brightness and whiteness. Processing aids when added to
Basic Chemistry:
AlCl3
4C3H6 -----------------------------> C12H24
0
Propylene 180- 200 C , 5-7 MPa pressure Propylene Tetramer ( Dodecene )
Dodecyl Benzene Sulphonate is mainly anionic detergent. The main raw material
of this detergent are Benzene, Dodecene, oleum and NaOH and different additives.
Dodecene or propylene tetramer is produced by the catalytic polymerization of
propylene containing about 50 % propane over kieselguhr impregnated
phosphoric acid catalyst at about 5 to 7 MPa and 200 0C. The effluent from the
fractionators contains unreacted propane which is used as fuel, propylene trimer is
recycled to the reactor and the third bottom fraction called propylene tetramer
(dodecene) is used for alkylation.
1) Builder Function: The builder is used for buffering pH , soil dispersion, soil
anti redeposition , solubilisation of water insoluble materials and
neutralization.
Example of builder used are metal carbonate, phosphate, borate and silicate
etc.
2) Bleaching agent and whitener Function: used for easy removal of dirt.
Example – sodium hypochlorite, sodium perborate.
3) Processing aids Function: They are used for adjustment of pH, removal of
moisture, prevention of caking during storage.
Example: sodium sulphonate or sodium carbonate.
5) Corrosion inhibitor Function: Used when dish washing and metal washing are
desirable.
Example: silicate, borax.
9) Other additives:
a) Dyes and pigments are used to give colour.
b) Fillers are used to decrease the bulk weight of detergent, i.e, to reduce
cost.
c) Enzymes are also used to remove special stains made by proteins like
milk, blood etc.
d) Some special agents propagate mildness towards skin, are also
incorporated in detergents.
e) Bacteriostats are added to prevent the growth of bacteria.
_________________
References :
1. Chemical Process Industries by Shreve , McGraw-Hill Book Co. Ltd., New Yorkand
Kogakusha Co. Ltd., Tokyo.
2. Outlines of Chemical Technology by Dryden , Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd., New
Delhi