History of Soap:
Archaeologists have found fragments of soap recipes dating back to 2800 BC. According to Legends, the word “soap” originates from ancient Rome, where animal fat unintentionally mingled with wood ash during ritual ceremonies on Mount Sapo. People discovered the resulting paste was effective in cleaning as an agent and they called it “sapo”.
Humans have been making basic soaps for over a millennium. Modern Soap keeps our world healthy. It cleans houses and businesses, work places, and factories in a versatile, gentle, and effective method. In many ways Soap is an essential commodity. Without it, proper sanitation is nearly impossible.
However, soap-making has evolved since Rome, and modern soap manufacturing requires specific set of chemicals and components, among them, an important one, Caustic Soda.
In this Blog you will learn:
Formula for Soap Manufacturing
How Soaps is Made
Application of Caustic Soda to Make Soap
Differences Between Detergent and Soap
How are soaps produced?
Soap-making is a relatively simple procedure. A standard method involves the saponification of oils and fats, which requires heat. Fats and oils get heated and then react against a liquid alkali (such as Caustic Soda), this process produces soap, plus excess water and glycerin.
Another common practice to produce soap is through neutralizing fatty acids with an alkali, most often sodium hydroxide (also called Caustic Soda). First, oils and fats get hydrolyzed, or split, using high-pressure steam. This method separates the fats into crude fatty acids and glycerin.
Next, the fatty acids get purified through distillation and then neutralized by an alkali, which results in outputs of soap and water.
If the alkali is potassium hydroxide, the result is a potassium soap. Potassium soaps are the “soft” liquid soaps that quickly dissolve in water. Alternately, if the alkali is Caustic Soda, the result is a sodium soap. These are called “hard” soaps and are less water-soluble than soft soaps with more common application in the consumption.
Caustic Soda Use in Soap Making:
Caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) with the chemical formula of NaOH is a very alkaline chemical compound that is used in multiple industries, including soap production and oil drilling and many others.
It is available in various forms such as powder, flakes, or liquid and has specific properties that make it an important material in the soap production process.
The role of caustic soda in Saponification:
The traditional and industrial soap production process is based on a chemical reaction called saponification. In this reaction, an alkali (in this case caustic soda) reacts with a fat or oil to produce soap and glycerin. In this reaction, triglyceride molecules provide in fats or oils are broken down and divided into fatty acids and glycerol. Then fatty acids react with sodium hydroxide (Caustic Soda) and sodium salts are formed.
Environmental Impact and Recycling
Soap factories must ensure that waste and effluents containing caustic soda are managed to have minimum environmental pollution. Some important measures in are:
• Recycling caustic soda: using special chemicals processes to use back the caustic soda into the manufacturing process
• Wastewater treatment: alkali neutralization and chemical treatment of liquid waste of the factory before discharging the output into the environment.
