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Detergency of Vegetable Oils and Semi-Solid Fats Using Microemulsion Mixtures of Anionic Extended Surfactants: The HLD Concept and Cold Water Applications

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Journal of Surfactants and Detergents

Abstract

In spite of the increasing interest in cold temperature detergency of vegetable oils and fats, very limited research has been published on this topic. Extended surfactants have recently been shown to produce very promising detergency with vegetable oils at ambient temperature. However, the excessive salinity requirement (4–14 %) for these surfactants has limited their use in practical applications. In this work, we investigated the mixture of a linear C10–18PO–2EO–NaSO4 extended surfactant and a hydrophobic twin-tailed sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate surfactant for cold temperature detergency of vegetable oils and semi-solid fats. Four vegetable oils of varying melting points (from −10 to 28 °C) were studied, these were canola, jojoba, coconut and palm kernel oils. Anionic surfactant mixtures showed synergism in detergency performance compared to single surfactant systems. At temperatures above the melting point, greater than 90 % detergency was achieved at 0.5 % NaCl. While detergency performance decreased at temperatures below the melting point, it was still superior to that of a commercial detergent (up to 80 vs. 40 %). Further, results show that the experimental microemulsion phase behaviors correlated very well with predictions from the hydrophilic–lipophilic deviation concept.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank George Smith from Huntsman Corporation (The Woodlands, TX) for providing the extended surfactant sample. Funding for this work was provided by industrial sponsors of the Institute for Applied Surfactant Research at the University of Oklahoma: CESI Chemical, Church & Dwight, Clorox, Conoco Phillips, Ecolab, GlaxoSmithKline, Haliburton Services, Huntsman, InVia Westvaco, Novus, Procter and Gamble, Phillips 66, Sasol, SC Johnson and Shell Chemicals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Linh D. Do, Chodchanok Attaphong & David A. Sabatini

  2. School of Chemical, Biological Engineering and Material Science, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    John F. Scamehorn

  3. Institute for Applied Surfactant Research, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Linh D. Do, Chodchanok Attaphong, John F. Scamehorn & David A. Sabatini

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  1. Linh D. Do
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Correspondence to David A. Sabatini.

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Do, L.D., Attaphong, C., Scamehorn, J.F. et al. Detergency of Vegetable Oils and Semi-Solid Fats Using Microemulsion Mixtures of Anionic Extended Surfactants: The HLD Concept and Cold Water Applications. J Surfact Deterg 18, 373–382 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11743-014-1659-1

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