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HOW TO MAKE SOAP BY COLD PROCESS

 HOW TO MAKE SOAP BY COLD PROCESS



What is soap? Soap is a consumer good that we need to maintain good hygiene daily. The history of soap is extended to 2200 BC. Soap helps to prevent the spreading of diseases, and clean the clothes and goods. During the Covid-19 virus, soap did a tremendous job against spreading it. 

The major constituents of soap are oil, alkali(base), and water.Apart from that, there are several miscellaneous ingredients that are added to the soap mixture to obtain scent, color, and texture. Soap act as a cleaning agent. It comes to the market with different physical natures such as cubes, bars, powders, and liquids.

Manufacturing of soap is done by using 02 processes. Namely

  • Cold Process
  • Hot Process
In this blog article, we are discussing the cold process.

The basic soap recipe for the cold process is to produce 4kg of laundry soap

Oil or fat        -    2.75kg
Alkali/Base    -    370g
Water              -   1.2Liters

Oils are liquids at room temperature while fats are solids. 

Examples of oils used in the soap industry

Coconut Oil
Palm kernel oil
Olive oil
Corn oil
Sunflower seed oil
Soya bean oil
Ground nut oil
Cotton seed oil

Examples of semi-solid fats used in the soap industry

Palm oil
Castor oil
Animal tallow

Alkali/Base/Lye

Sodium Hydroxide(NaoH) is the commonly used alkali in soap. In the market, it is known as caustic soda. Caustic soda produces hard soap. 
If you need to produce softer soap, Potassium Hydroxide(KOH) can be used as an alkali. 
Lye should be handled with care. It can burn your skin and easily react with metals like Aluminium.

Water

Used only bottled, filtered, or distilled water. Do not use chlorinated water. Rainwater is a very good medium for soap mixtures. 

Equipment needed for the manufacturing process

  • 02 large bowls or buckets, preferably made from plastics. Do not use Aluminium equipment
  • Plastics measuring cups
  • Weighing scale
  • Wooden/plastics spoons or sticks
  • Molds-made from wood, plastics, corrugated sheets of paper, wax paper, or silicone rubber
  • oil papers to line the mold surface, which gives easy de-molding of soap
Method
  • Add lye to the water. Not the other way. Then the reaction will release heat into the environment and called an " Exothermic Reaction"
  • If you are using any solid fat, first melt it into liquid
  • Pour the alkali slowly into the oil, while stirring in a one direction
  • The mixture must be stirred for 30 minutes after the lye has been added
  • Gradually the mixture becomes thicker
  • Then pour the mixture into molds and keep it for 02 days in a dry place to set, without any disturbances. Wrapped the soap mixture in molds with a towel to facilitate the "saponification process" - turning fats into soap
  • After 02 days de-mold the soap  keep  4-6 weeks to cure 
In the cold process, it is very important to maintain the correct ratio of lye and fat. If too much lye in the formulation, it causes the irritate/burns on the skin. 

Quality parameters of Soaps

Total Fatty Matter-TFM

TFM referees to as how much fatty matter percentage contain in soap. Traditionally this measurement is used to grade the soap. For laundry soap, it lies 45%-55%

PH Value

The ㏗ value of the laundry soap is between 7-9





 





  












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