Soap & Detergent (1 Viewer)

[Chrisssss]

I have a research question which I have been experiencing difficulty finding information on. Once I've found the information I don't think I'll have much difficulty in constructing a response however, as said finding info is a tad difficult

Q:
Compare soap & detergent by critically evaluating the importance of each of these five factors:
Availability of raw materials
Cost of raw materials
Ease of manufacture
Cost of manufacture
Suitability of surfactant produced (including it’s environmental impact)
If anyone even can recite some information they've learned regarding any of these factors of the top of their head it would be greatly appreciated. I have a collection of sites which I think may be suitable though especially things like costs and ease of manufacture are hard to find info on.
Thanks in advance to any replies.

 

[Undermyskin]

This is pathetic. I just digested the whole module in one week and now they are tumbling out of my head. (

I know more for soap, I suppose.

Raw material/cost: relative cheap and abundant since it's made from animal fats which can be attained from abartoirs, slaughterhouses, et cetera.
NaOH is quite expensive but probably as you know, sodium carbonate is widely used as an alternative which is cheaper.
Ease of manufacture: very simple and that's why we can make soap using our humble lab equipments!
Cost: cheap, compared with detergents.
Surfactants:... i don't think there's any harmful surfactant in soaps at all. Soap is used specifically widely for personal hygiene purposes and thus it shouldn't be 'harmful'.

Detergents
Raw materials: since they are all synthetic, their prices are closely related to those of their components: for cationic, non-ionic or anionic surfactants, depending on what specific surfactant it is, we need to consider the price of long-chained hydrocarbons, ammonia, benzene, etc. In comparison, they are more expensive and harder to produce than soap.
Ease of manufacture: Harder (I can't gather any info about how they are produced immediately)
Cost: more expensive (obviously)
Surfactants: (most interesting part) very environmentally unfriendly. We can mention the 'soapy' incidents in 1960s, alga bloom caused by phosphate builders (zeolites are the substitutes), biocidal effects (esp. cationic), etc. Hey, we can in fact include the manufacture price of the builders and stuff to the overall price of detergents!

 

[Chrisssss]

Wow, thanks alot for that, very concise and helpful!