SOAP AND

DETERGENT

By
Evelyn, Fatin, Izati

Soaps

Detergent

Environment
al Issues

SOAP AND
DETERGENT

SOAPS
Raw Material
Manufacturing Process
Types Of Soaps
Hydrophobic and
Hydrophilic Orientation

What Is Soap????

Soap is a cleansing agent created by the chemical reaction

of a fatty acid with an alkali metal hydroxide.
water-soluble sodium or potassium salts of fatty acids
made from fats and oils, or their fatty acids, by treating
them chemically with a strong alkali
has the general chemical formula RCOOX.

Raw
Material

Main materials are caustic soda or sodium hydroxide or

potassium hydroxide
Animal fats
Plant oils (Coconut oil, Palm oil)
Others common material are olive oil and cottonseed oil

Manufacturing
Process
Oil
Preparation

Drying

Fitting

Saponification

Washing

Oil Preparation

Tallow and coconut oil are blended together and dried

in a vacuum chamber.
Once the oils are dry, bleaching earth is added to
remove any colored impurities. The bleaching earth
remove by filtration.
The oils are stored ready for saponification.

Saponification

The bleached oils is mixed with recycled spent lye

and fresh caustic soda (NaOH).
The mixture is boiled until it settles into two layers
of soap (bottom) and unreacted oil (top).

Washing

The crude soap is washed with fresh caustic

solution and nigre lye.
The washed soap is sent to fitting pans.

Fitting

Remaining unwanted glycerine is removed by reboilling

with water, NaCI and a small amount of NaOH solution.
The electrolyte concentration in the water separates the
soap and water into two layer.
The top layer is neat wet soap and pumped off to be
dried.
The neat soap may be extracted for conventional soap
productio( bar, flake or powder).
The bottom layer is known as nigre layer consists of
solution os soap, glycerine and NaCI.

Drying

The water level is reduced down to about 12% by

heating the soap to about 125 C under pressure and
vacuum pressure of about 40 mm Hg (5.3 kPa).
the soap then mixed with air in a heat exchangerm
where the soap is cooled to 45 C.
The soap then blended together with fragrance,
colorants and all other ingredients.

The saponification of triglycerides with

an alkali is a bimolecular nucleophilic
substitution (SN2).

The rate of the of the reaction depends

on the increase of the reaction
temperature and on the high mixing
during the processing
Saponification equation:

NaOH + C17H35COOH
C17H35COONa + H2O

Types Of Soaps

Two main important classes of soaps are toilet and

industrial.
Toilet soap is usually made from mixture of tallow
and coconut in ratios 80-90/10-20.
The bar soap includes regular and super fatted toilet
soaps, deodorant and antimicrobial soaps and hard
water soaps.
The super fatted soaps are also made from mixture of
coconut oil in ratios 50-60/40-50.

Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic

Orientation
A soap molecule has two ends with different
properties:
A long hydrocarbon part which is
hydrophobic (i.e. it dissolves in hydrocarbon).
A short ionic part containing COO-Na+ which
is hydrophilic (i.e. it dissolves in water).

Mechanism Of Soap

SOAP
Advantages

Very effective as a
bactericide
It will form gels, emulsify
oil and lower the surfaces
tension of water.
Excellent
everyday
cleaning agent.
Good biodegradability

Disadvantages

Oils and perfume are immiscible

in water and if spilled create
havoc, although the oils do
solidify at room temperature.
When used in hard water, soap
can produced a scum.
**Soaps, will react with metal ions in the water and can
form insoluble precipitates (soap scum).

Detergent
Detergent- product that after formulation
devised to promote the development
detergency.
Three major components of raw material
detergent:

Surfactants
Builders
Bleaching agents

is
of
of

Classification of surfactants

Surfactants are water-soluble oil-insoluble (hydrophilic)

portion on one side and an oil-soluble water-insoluble
(hydrophobic) portion on the opposite side.
The surfactants exhibits surface activity by lowering the
surface tension of liquids.
surfactants are classified by their ionic (electrical
charge) properties in water:

Anionic (negative charge)

Cationic (positive charge)
Nonionic (no charge)
Amphoteric ( either positive or negative charge)

Anionic
surfactants

Anionic surfactants are compounds in which the

detergency is realized in the anion.

R-SO3- Na+

Few examples are alkylbenzene suphonates, fatty

alcohol sulphates (alkyl sulphates) and alkyl ether
sulphates.

Linear alkyl benzene sulphonate

(LAS)

It has good foaming ability and its foam can be

readily stabilized
Its foam can be boosted or controlled by foam
inhibitors/regulators.
LAS is sensitive to water hardness.

Fatty alcohol sulphates

(ROSO3H)

They are readily biodegradable.

Used in heavy and light duty detergents as
as in toilet soaps.
They are chemically stable on the alkaline
and are easily hydrolysed on the acid side.

well
side

Alkyl ether sulphates

(AES)

They are

highly foaming and

have low sensitivity to water hardness.
High solubility
Good storage stability at low temperature

AES are suitable components of detergents for

delicate or wool washables, foam baths, hair
shampoos and dishwashing liquids.

Nonionic surfactants

The majority of nonionic surfactants are condensation

products of ethylene oxide with hydrophobe.
Hydrophobe is a high molecular weight material with
an active hydrogen atom.
The nonionic material can be one of the reaction
products.

Fatty alcohol and alkylphenol condensates

Fatty acid condensates
Condensates of ethylene oxide with an amine
Condensates of ethylene oxide with an amide

Alkyl polyglycol ethers (AEO)

Obtained by ethoxylation of ethylene oxide and any

compound having reaction hydrogen atoms
(hydrophobe).
The polyglycol ethers of straight chain alcohols are
becoming the most important surfactants.
Most of AEO are viscous liquids or soft pastes.
Aqueous solution exhibit an inverse solubility
behaviour. ( the solubility decreases with increasing
temperature)

Alkylolamides of fatty
acids
They have a structure of diethanolethamide

They have a structure of diethanolethamide and

monoethanolamide.
Monoethanolamide are usually used in laundry
detergents.
Diethanolethamide are used in light duty and
dishwashing detergents and shampoos.
Their major function is in foam boosting and soil
suspension.

Cationic surfactants

These surfactants are very strongly absorbed to the

surface of natural fibers, such as cotton, wool and
linen.
They are invariably contain amino compounds.
They are used for special effects for example as
antistatic agents, fabric softening and as
microbicides.

Quaternary ammonium
compounds

Commonly used as fabric/textile softener for

both household and industrial use.

Amphoteric

These surfactants have the characteristics of both

anionic detergents and cationic fabric softeners
It show the properties of anionics at high pH and
cationics at low pH.
They are used to overcome problems associated with
high electrolyte levels and corrosion.
Other properties:

Excellent foaming and lime soap dispersing properties

Antistatic
Textile softening

For example
Alkyl aminopropionic acids have antistatic and
hair softening properties.
N-alkylbetains are rarely used because they are
expensive.

Builders

They are used to support detergent action and to

deal with the problem of water hardness.
Common builders used are:

Alkalis
Complexing agents
Ion exchangers

Bleaching agents

Hydrogen peroxide is the main bleaching agent

Sodium perborate is incorporated in detergents as a
source of hydrogen peroxide
It increase the reflectance of visible light at the
expense of absorption.
It involves the removal; or change of dyes and soil
by mechanical and/or physical means.

Functions of detergent

As a wetting agent
Water has high surface tension.
It reduces the surface tension of water.
As a result of this, water spread over the surface and
wets it more easily.

As an emulsifying agent

A detergent increases the wetting power of water. Tap water does not wet this
piece of cloth easily, but detergent solution does.

An oil-water emulsion is unstable on standing.

Tiny oil droplets rapidly join together and grow
larger to form separate oily layer again.

An oil-water emulsion is stabilized by a detergent.

a) Before the mixture is shaken

b) After shaking
c) Negatively charged oil droplet repel each other.

DETERGENT
Advantages

biodegradable
do not decompose in acidic medium.
As detergents are derived from
petroleum they save on natural
vegetable oils.
can lather well even in hard water*

Disadvantages
Their elimination from municipal
wastewaters by the usual treatments
is a problem.
have a tendency to produce stable
foams in rivers that extend over
several hundred meters of the river
water.
danger to aquatic life.
Some surfactants are incompletely
broken down with conventional
treatment processes
inhibit oxidation*

Environmental
Issue

Emissions and control

The exhaust air from detergent towers
contains two types of contaminants

Fine detergent particles

Organics vaporized in the higher zone

 The amount of foam on river was increasing and where

water was being drawn from wells located close to
household discharge points, the water tend to form when
coming out of the tap.
In certain lake and ponds algae started reproducing at an
unprecedented rate. This was blamed on the extensive use
of phosphate in the form of sodium tripolyphosphate.

THAN
K