1.0 Introduction
Soap is defined as the sodium salt of fatty acid. It is a saponification products of fat and oil.
The washing industry, usually known as the soap industry, has root over 2000 years in the past, a soap factory being found in the Pompeii excavation. However, among the many chemical process industries, none has experience such a fundamental change in chemical raw materials as have the washing industries. It has been generally accepted that the per capital use of toilet soap is a reliable guide to the standard of living for any country.
Moreover, the process of soap making has progressed from batch-wise saponification process to continous saponification process, which was first installed in 1937 by procter and gamble.
In otherwords, soap is the earliest detergent known to man and apparently was first made by the Roman from animal's fats and wood ashes (which contains the alkali potassium carbonate) about 2500 years ago. In colonial America and until the 1940s, most soap was manufactured by an alkaline hydrolysis reaction called saponification.
1.1 Scope and Objectives of the Research Work
This project is concerned with the production of a high quality soap from local raw materials such as palm kernel oil, hence emphasis shall be placed on soaps rather than on soapless detergents.
The making of soap is one of the oldest of chemical synthesis/whom the German tribeman of Caeser time boiled goat tallow with potash leached from the ashes of wood fire's they were carrying out the some chemical reactions as the one carried out on a tremendous scale by modern soap manufacturers, hydrolysis of glycerine which yields salt of the carboxylic acids and glycerol.
Soap may vary in composition and method of processing: if made from olive oil, it is enstile soap; alcohol can be added to make it transparent; our can be beaten in to make it float; perfumes, dyes, germicides can be added; if a potassium salt (instead of a sodium salt) is used; it is a soft soap. Chemically however, soap remains pretty much the same and does its job the same way.
The overall objective of this research project is geared towards producing soap of very good quality from palm kernel oil at a very economic way.
1.2 Significance of the Research
Soap can be produced with a wide range variety of raw material. It basic composition is a product of an alkali, or a mixture of alkalis an oil or its blend. However, from literature survey, it was found that various types of oils differed, consequently their soap product differed.
In this research work, high quality industrial soap can be produced using palm kernel oil. The work involves working out the soap formulae and using the formulations to produce soap. The soaps so produced will then be tested analytically to determine their various physical and chemical properties. Finally, recommendations will be made.
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