introduction

Detergents are chemicals that are effective surface and coming

instead of soap in many of the uses and areas , in the home and even
the factory are preferred in some uses because of its specification is
better than soap in hand uses this .
The chemical composition is different for the installation of soap ,
but the same mechanism by the soap , not adversely affected by hard
minerals in the water.
Have emerged detergents this first appeared in Germany during
the First World War because of the substantial shortfall in the fatty
materials necessary for the soap industry at that time . And then
spread in all countries .
At the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century past
sales exceeded sales of detergents , soap world , where replaced in the
field of laundry and household cleaning and industrial, with the
exception of templates soaps are still used to clean the
body , which began shampoo replaced by now .
In order to achieve good results for washing is required three main
factors in tandem with each other, namely :

1 - Chemical agent : This is provided by the soap and detergents.

2 - Mechanical agent : This is secured by a washing machine .
3 - Heat agent : This is secured by raising the temperature of water
`washing .`
Detergents There are many types of detergents , each type of
cleaning detergent its own , but often divided detergents mainly to :

1 - General detergent laundry , or detergents for all purposes ) .

2 - cleaners Uses easy.
3 - Detergents harsh surfaces .
4 - Detergent dishwashers mechanism
 production of sulphonic acid

sulphure melter
the sulfur rock is fed to the melter and melted by indirect contact
with steam producing from coils at temp 150°C at max; because
above this temp the viscosity with reach high valve and this will
effect the pump that pumped the melted sulfure to burner.
Process Air Drying
The atmospheric air is compressed up to 0,6 Kg/cm2 as requested
by the downstream sulphonation process. The compressed air is
dried by refrigeration condensation of the water contained in the
atmospheric air and subsequent absorption on a desiccant bed.

Main features of the unit

• Low operating pressure (0,7 Kg/cm2 max).

Process Air Dew Point lower than -70°C.

"If the temperature of air is lower than the dew point, water vapor condenses and
leaves the air in the form of water. At this point relative humidity is essentially
100%"

• Fully automatic regeneration of absorbent medium (silica

gel/Al2O3).

• Low energy consumption due to the recovery of the hot air from
SO3 production unit for absorbent medium regeneration.

• High reliability and efficiency.

SO3 Production

In order for SO3 gas in air to be delivered to the sulphonator unit

for the sulphonation to take place, liquid sulphur must be burned.
The liquid sulphur must be delivered to the SulphurBurner at 1:1
ratio.

The reaction that takes place at the Sulphur Burner is as follows:

S O2 SO2

The sulphur burner will also be connected to a tank of fuel -

methane (CH4) and a pump which will be necessary for plant start
up purposes. Excess air will be available in the sulphur burner to
ensure that all the sulphur present has reacted in order to reach
the 99.9%. sulphur efficiency, but also to ensure that the toxic
sulphur does not pass un-reacted into the later stages as this can
damage the catalytic reactor and its catalyst.
The reaction depicted above is very exothermic to produce an
outlet gas stream temperature of approximately 1048oC and
therefore the sulphur burner must be followed by air cooling that
will cool the gas stream to 430°C.

The cooled SO2 along with the other inert gases possessed by the
stream will be then delivered to a Catalytic Reactor. The catalytic
reactor contains 4 beds packed with the catalyst Vanadium (V)
Oxide (V2O5). The catalyst will help greatly in obtaining a good
yield in the following reversible reaction:

2SO2 O2 2SO3

The catalytic reactor will produce 99.9% conversion from SO2 to

SO3, for this to occur 4 beds will be necessary. The conversions
that take place in each bed are as follows:

1st bed: 0%-65%.

2nd bed: 65%-90%

3rd bed: 90%-96%

4th bed: 96%-99.9%

Each catalytic bed is followed by a condenser in order to cool the

gases down and in doing so obtaining a greater conversion to
SO3. According to the Le Chatelier’s Principle which states that if a
dynamic equilibrium is disturbed by a change in conditions, the
system moves to counteract the change and thus restore
equilibrium. Therefore the following factors are necessary in order
to drive the reversible reaction to the right and obtain a greater
conversion:

in temperature, as the reversible reaction above is

• Decrease
exothermic and a decrease in temperature would bring about a
system move to the right producing more SO3.
The heat exchanger after the catalytic bed has the task of cooling
the gas stream from approximately 620°C to 440°C. After the
second bed, the Heat Exchanger will cool the gas from
approximately 512 °C to 450 °C and then deliver to the third bed.
After the third bed the stream will exit at approximately 467°C and
is fed into the fourth Heat Exchanger which will cool it to 267°C.

Sulphonation

Air with 7% SO3 is pumped to the Sulphonator, where it is

contacted with LAB and the following reaction occurs.

The SO3 gas out coming from the SO3 production unit is filtered
by a special high efficiency brink filter to eliminate any trace of
carried-over oleum. Then is fed to the top of the Multi-tube Falling
Film sulphonation reactor where also the organic raw material is
fed under mass flow control. The reaction of SO3 gas with the
organic raw material take place in the MTFR. At the outlet of the
reactor the gas/liquid mixture is separated in a special gas/liquid
separator and in a downstream gas cyclone. The sulphonic acid is
sent to a special stabilizing unit when Linear Alkylbenzene is
processed, or straight to the neutralization unit where Fatty Alcohol
are processed. The Sulphonator has a water cooling jacket to
remove the heat of reaction. The inlet ratio between LAB and
sulphur trioxide in air must be sustained to the pre-set value with
little to no deviation. LAB and SO3 flow co-currently down the
sulphonator column producing LABSA (linear alkyl benzene
sulfonic acid). The stream is then passed to the Cyclone where
any un-reacted SO2 or sulphuric acid is removed from the stream,
the removed gases are cooled down by a Heat Exchanger and
then sent to the Electrostatic Precipitator. The rest of the organic
stream is first cooled and can be recycled back or not to the
Sulphonator depending on the amount of the recycled portion. The
Electrostatic Precipitator this removes the SO3 and sulphuric acid
particles from the air using an electrostatic charge that is very
efficient in comparison to other such type of scrubbers as it
applies energy only to the matter that requires scrubbing

Main features of the unit:

•Outstanding performances in terms of product quality.

•High operating flexibility thanks to the capability to process any

raw material used in detergent and surfactant industry.

•High reliability and operation easiness.

•Very high heat transfer efficiency that enables an accurate control

of the temperature profile in the reactor.

•Low pressure drop (0,3 Kg/cm2 average) resulting in a reduced

energy consumption of the whole sulphonation plant.

•High reliability and longer lifetime thanks to the use of

sophisticated corrosion resistant alloys in critical parts.

•Very high heat transfer efficiency that enables an accurate control

of the temperature profile in the reactor.

uses of sulfonic acid

1-Detergents and surfactants

2-Dyes

3-Acid catalysts

4-Drugs
 chapter 3

The production of sodium silicate

Sodium silicate is a product with unlimited possibilities. It is a chemical
compound of silicon dioxide (SiO2produced from pure silver sand),
disodium oxide (Na2O) and water. There are two methods for the
production of sodium silicate:

Hydrothermal production of sodium silicate

With the hydrothermal process, also known as the 'wet process', silver
sand (SiO2) is reacted with caustic soda (NaOH) and water. The result is
an alkaline liquid sodium silicate with a molar ratio less than 2.5.

The furnace process for sodium silicate

With the furnace process, soda (Na2CO3) and sand are fused at
temperatures over 1000 °C. The result is a glass-like sodium silicate with
a molar ratio that is usually greater than 2.5 (standard ± 3.4). The
resulting product (commonly called cullet) can be dissolved under
conditions such as pressure, temperature and time to produce neutral
silicate. Molar ratios up to 3.5 are possible.
Hydrothermal production of sodium silicate

Sodium silicate solution is obtained by chemical attack of silica sand with

caustic soda through a two-steps reaction path, as per following reactions:

2NaOH → Na2O + H2O

Na2O + nSiO2 → Na2O*nSiO2 n = 1.6 ÷ 2.0

Caustic soda fed to the reactors undergoes a dissociation generating

sodium oxide which, in its turn, reacts with silica contained in the sand so
producing sodium silicate.
The reaction process, occurring in presence of 12 bar pressure saturated
steam, is carried out batch-wise inside stirred reactors, autoclaves type,
where silica sand, caustic soda solution at 50% and water are charged in
appropriate quantities.
The total exothermicity of the reaction path is 135 kcal/kg of reacted
NaOH (100%).
At 48°Bé density, the finished sodium silicate solution contains 41.8% of
dry material, the remaining being water

The plant includes the following sections:

Raw materials dosing

Solid and liquid raw materials dosing is carried out by means of reactors
weighing systems.
Opportunely sieved silica sand is charged into the reactors by means of
screw conveyors while caustic soda solution and water are fed by pipes,
carefully respecting the quantities required by the batch.

Reaction

Two autoclaves type reactors, working in parallel configuration, are

generally foreseen.
Operating conditions maintained in the reactors during the 8 hours cycle
are: pressure 11- 12 bar and temperature 188-192°C.
Sodium silicate solution leaving the reactors at high temperature is cooled
down to a temperature suitable for the following treatment of filtration.

•vessel
the product is leaving the reactor going to the vessel with conical bottom
to facilitate the settling of un reacted silicon dioxide, the vessel involving
three suction pump located vertically to the product to the next stage.

Filtration of sodium silicate solution

Sodium silicate solution is carefully filtered before its final storage.
Filter-press type filter is used.

uses of sodium silicate

1-In the fabricate of Silica Gel

2-In foundry

3-In mining and development

3-In cleanser make

4-In paper and mash industry

multi-tube falling film reactor
Nozzle-set: A complete unit comprising a female part, a male part,
respective tightening arrangement, tightening bolts and sealing system.

Reactor tube: A conventional tube, total length 5-7 m, and fixed to the
female part of the nozzle-set. The reactor tube represents in this way
the zone for the chemical reaction taking place, and transfers heat of
reaction to the surrounding and circulating cooling liquid.

Multi-tube falling film reactor has a complete reactor unit including from
two to more than hundred reactor-elements together with separate
chambers for distribution of gaseous reactant, liquid organic reactant,
cooling liquid, collecting chamber for finished product and connections
for all material flows.
organic chamber defined and limited by a cylindrical plate fixed to a
cylindrical spacer fixed to a counter-flange bolted and sealed to the
lowest cylindrical plate.

Calibration of nozzle-set: Manual and time consuming work for all

individual nozzle-sets, at least the reactor head must be fully assembled to
accomplish this procedure. A quantity of organic reactant normally
corresponding to the nominal capacity of is the reactor, is fed to the
common organic chamber, and all the individual flows leaving nozzle-
sets or reactor tubes, are carefully determined by weighing. Based on the
measuring results from this procedure, an arithmetic average for the
individual flows 20 is calculated, for instance Xav. Any deviation outside
a predetermined and acceptable range, will have to be adjusted for by
replacement of the shims having thicknesses different from the ones
originally installed. Normally this procedure will have to be 25 repeated
until several times to reach a range described by:

Xav=1%