CHM144L Industrial Chemistry Laboratory

2nd Quarter SY 2015-2016

Soap Making
MAYO, Ronalie Nicole S.
Student, CHM144L/B31, School of Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Biotechnology, Mapua
Institute of Technology

INTRODUCTION
Soaps are cleaning agents that are usually
made by reacting alkali (e.g., sodium
hydroxide) with naturally occurring fat or fatty
acids. The reaction produces sodium salts of
these fatty acids, which improve the cleaning
process by making water better able to lift
away greasy stains from skin, hair, clothes,
and just about anything else. As a substance
that has helped clean bodies as well as
possessions, soap has been remarkably
useful. Soap area sodium or potassium salts
of high molecular weight fatty acids. In the
south East Asia, soaps are primarily made
from palm oil blended with either coconut oil
or palm kernel oil. The material may be
substituted to lower the cost of the product
and made use of the available resources.
India they used hardened rice bran oil
instead of palm oil. China uses cattle or
sheep tallow or lard from pigs. Australia uses
beef tallow. A normal blend of soap is 80%
tallow or palm oil and 20% coconut or palm
kernel oil. This blend produces the right
balance of lather, rate of wear, cleaning
ability and bar hardness.
There are three basic ways to manufacture
soap. The first one is the direct
saponification of oils and fats where A
mixture of tallow (animal fat), coconut oil,
sodium hydroxide and salt are mixed in fixed
proportion and fed to a reactor (Kettle or
pan) with and heated with steam. Effective
mixing and proper blending of raw material is
very important to ensure a consistent
reaction. The soap batch is boiled using
steam sparging. The soap produced is the
salt of a long chain carboxylic acid. The
Experiment 01 Group No. January 29, 2016

second way is the neutralization of fatty

acids where in hydrolysis of oils and fats
occur before neutralization. The last part is
the saponification of fatty methyl esters. In
the experiment we are tasked to prepare
various type of soap by different processes.
We must be able to understand the process
of making soap and to identify the various
roles of the raw materials used.
PROCEDURE
A. Opaque Soap
Cold Process and Hot Process (heat the
coconut oil to about 70OC)
1. Calculate the amount of materials
needed
Weight of NaOH = Saponification value
X g Coconut oil X __ MM NaOH___
MMKOH *1000
Use 256 as the saponification value of
coconut oil
2. Weigh the required amount of materials
3. Dissolve the NaOH in enough water to
make 37% NaOH
4. Place the coconut oil needed in a
250mLbeaker.
5. Pour the NaOH solution to the coconutoil
slowly with constant stirring.

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6. Continue stirring until at viscous mixture

is obtained.

10. Allow the soap to harden, remove from

molders and determine the weight.

7. Pour the mixture into the molders.

DATA AND RESULTS

8. Allow the soap to harden, remove from

molders and determine the weight.
9. Prepare 1% soap solution of each
sample. Determine their pH.
B. Transparent Soap
1. Weigh the required amount of materials.
2. Place 50% of the required water in a
beaker. Dissolve the NaOH and set
aside.
3. Place the remaining 50% of water in a
separate beaker. Add sugar. Stir until it is
totally dissolved and set aside.
4. In the stainless steel vessel, add the
following: glycerin, propylene glycol,
stearic acid, lauric acid and myristic acid.

SOAP :

%
difference

%
recovery

Opaque (by
Cold
process)
Opaque (by
Hot process)
Transparent

7.90

92.10

pH of
1%
soap
soln
12

17.50

82.50

19.18

80.84

13

Calculations:
A. Opaque Soap
I. Cold Process
A.

theoretical weight of soapactual weight of

theoretical weight of soap
149.33 g137.54 g
difference=
100
149.33 g

difference=

difference=7.90

5. Heat the mixture to 70 C. add ethanol.

Gently stir.
6. Pour the NaOH solution to the stainless
steel vessel slowly with constant stirring.
Do not agitate the solution so as not to
introduce too many bubbles.
7. Continue heating with careful stirring at
constant temperature until the mixture is
homogenous.
8. Add the sugar solution. Gently stir. Add
the essential oil and the food coloring.
9. Pour the mixture while hot into the
molders.

Experiment 01 Group No. January 29, 2016

B.

actual weight of soap

100
theoretical weight
137.54 g
recovery =
100
149.33 g
recovery =92.10
recovery =

C. pH of 1% soap solution= 12

II. Hot Process

A.

theoretical weight of soapactual weight of

theoretical weight of soap
149.33 g123.2 g
difference=
100
149.33 g

difference=

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difference=17.50
B.

actual weight of soap

100
theoretical weight
123.2 g
recovery =
100
149.33 g
recovery =82.50
recovery =

percentage recovery for both process were

affected, since some of the mixture was
discarded when the molder was full.
Nevertheless, we have obtained relatively
high percentage of percentage recovery.

The pH value refers to the strength of an

acid or the base. Testing the pH of a soap is
an easy way to be sure that a soap is safe to
use, and does not contain any extra lye. The
pH scale shows the strength of an acid or
C. pH of 1% soap solution= 9
base. Soap with a high pH (above 10) is
likely to be too harsh, or lye-heavy, for use.
B. Transparent Soap
The pH of soap from 7 to 10 assures that
there is no free lye remaining in the soap
(lye has a pH of 14) and that the soap is safe
A.
to use.
theoretical weight of soapactual weight
of Since,
soap the cold processed soap and
difference=
100
transparent soap have a pH of 12 and 13
theoretical weight of soap
that is above 10 therefore the soap have an
150 g121.26 g
difference=
100
extra lye and it is not safe to use while for
150 g
the hot processed soap with a pH of 9 is
safe to use.
difference=19.18
B.

actual weight of soap

100
theoretical weight
121.26 g
recovery =
100
150 g
recovery =80.84
recovery =

C. pH of 1% soap solution= 13

DISCUSSION
The properties of a product, in this
experiment a soap, are also affected by how
the product is processed or manufactured.
For the opaque soap, we observed that the
cold processed soap become viscous and
hardened faster than the hot process. The
percentage recovery of both process are
almost the same since we used the same
molder that has a volume of 100 ml. The

Experiment 01 Group No. January 29, 2016

For the transparent soap, the 80.84%

obtained percentage recovery is fairly high.
This is because that the mixture hardens
quickly when no stirring performed, some of
the hardened mixture adheres to the
stainless steel vessel. The curing time or the
hardening time of the transparent soap is so
much faster than the curing time of the
opaque soaps. Clear or transparent soap are
like classical soap but in a glycolic. The
saponification is carried out in a
homogenous phase. The transparency of
the finished soap is dependent on the quality
of the raw materials.
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
In this experiment, we are able to prepare
various types of soap. Cold processed, and
hot processed opaque soap and transparent
soap were prepared in this experiment. The
preparation and process of these soaps
were learned and understand. In addition,

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the difference and advantages of the soaps

were also learned and observed in this
experiment. Cold processed and transparent
soap cure faster than a hot-processed soap.
Transparent soap has a lower pH value than
the two opaque soaps which is therefore
safer to use.

1. Introduction to Soap And

Detergent, Soap Making And
Recovery of Glycerine

For the percentage recovery and percentage

difference, it is more practical to use bigger
molder to ensure that no solution or mixture
will be discarded making percentage
recovery and percentage difference higher or
100 %. In addition, to attain the best quality
and high percentage yield soap several
points should be considered. One is
temperature maintenance, being able to
constantly remain in that temperature would
result to complete neutralization. Ensure that
the amounts of the mixtures are as fixed as
possible to the wanted value. Constant
stirring results to a better product. Agitation
of the mixture will cause bubbles and could
drastically affect the percentage of the
product soap.

2. Chemistry Explained
http://www.chemistryexplained.
com/Ru-Sp/Soap.html

http://nptel.ac.in/courses/10310
7082/module4/lecture1/lecture
1.pdf

3. http://curioussoapmaker.com/cold-processvs-hot-process-which-methodchoose.html

REFERENCES

Experiment 01 Group No. January 29, 2016

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