Production of eco-friendly soap from glycerine pitch and blend oil

Abstract

Glycerine or glycerol is an alcohol with three hydroxyl (-OH) groups. It is a colourless, odourless, viscous and water-soluble liquid. Being a by-product from the production of biodiesel, glycerine is presently abundantly available. This situation is alarming since the surplus of glycerine could not be coped and part of the effort to reduce it is by incineration, which leads to environmental concern. On the other hand, glycerine pitch is an unwanted residue from oleo-chemical plant. Hence, there is an urgent need to utilize the abundantly available and cheap glycerine and the unwanted glycerine pitch. On the bright side, from previous research and application, glycerine can be transformed to other higher value-added products. Due to its moisturising properties, one of the main uses of glycerine is in the blending of eco-friendly soap. This study was aimed to investigate the blending process and properties of liquid soap. The starting materials used were lab grade glycerine and glycerine pitch waste. Both glycerines were mixed with sulphuric acid; underwent activated carbon treatment and evaporation for purification. Combination of glycerine and glycerine pitch obtained demonstrated very little absence of soap. Final observation showed good indicator of the utilization of glycerine pitch. This was proven from soap B with pH 8.3 that took 5.9 hours before the disappearance of soap.