Rosin acids, surfactants from

The personal care industry remains traditionally the largest consumer of soaps depending on the region, from 50 to 75 % of the total surfactant consumption accounts for soaps [81], The increase in body shampoo consumption last decades is assumed to alter the soap market slightly. The consumption rate of soap in household and laundry aids is quite modest now and limited essentially by the "old times" detergents, foam-control additives, chlorine-containing alkali cleaners, and metal cutting oils. The sodium salts of rosin acids and wool wax acids are of some importance for technical needs and bar soaps. 

Chem. Descrip. Low-rosin grade fatty acid derived from tall oil Uses Surfactant raw material for mfg. of emulsifiers used in disinfectants, cleaners, detergents, air-drying and baking alkyds, gloss oils and varnishes, toy enamels, metallic driers, core oils, masonry cements, flotation reagents, metal cleaners Regulatory FDA approved... 

CAS 61790-12-3 EINECS/ELINCS 263-107-3 Synonyms Acids, tall oil Disproportionated tall oil fatty acid Fatty acids, tall oil Tall oil acids Tall oil fatty acid Tall oil fatty acids TOFA Definition Mixture of rosin acids and fatty acids recovered from the hydrolysis of tall oil Properties Liq. anionic Toxicoiogy Mildly irritating to skin repeated skin contact may result in allergic reactions such as rash or dermatitis inh. of mists can cause irritation TSCA listed Precaution Combustible Uses Emulsifier for metalworking fluids, polymerization, dyes, leather, coatings, petroleum industry mfg. of surfactants, soaps. 

This increasing concern about a very versatile surfactant raw material has called for a replacement to be found from naturally occurring substances. The combination of an aromatic ring and a short and bulky hydrophobic group is almost impossible to find among common natural products. Nevertheless, sterols and other alicyclic compounds can offer a molecular structure that in some respects resembles the structure of nonylphenol. The ring structures, sometimes with several unsaturated bonds, together with a branched hydrocarbon tail, appear in both sterols and rosin acids. This chapter deals with... 

Aside from a lower solids content of 40-50%, medium-solids latexes are similar to cold latexes in most other respects. The surfactant systems are either fatty or rosin acids, with the latter probably more common in this instance. The latexes are generally of somewhat larger particle size than unagglomerated cold latexes and the stability of the two classes is similar. 

The tall oil soaps are particularly attractive because they are very inexpensive. They are actually complex mixtures of fatty acids and rosin acids, which are difficult to characterize and control. The presence of the rosin acids in these materials generally imparts better water solubility as well as enhanced surfactant properties. Because of their complex nature and difficulties in obtaining sufficiently clean materials, the tall oil soaps have generally found use only in the most tolerant areas of heavy-duty industrial cleaning and within the processes from which they are derived. 

Ethoxylation of alkyl amine ethoxylates is an economical route to obtain the variety of properties required by numerous and sometimes smaH-volume industrial uses of cationic surfactants. Commercial amine ethoxylates shown in Tables 27 and 28 are derived from linear alkyl amines, ahphatic /-alkyl amines, and rosin (dehydroabietyl) amines. Despite the variety of chemical stmctures, the amine ethoxylates tend to have similar properties. In general, they are yellow or amber Hquids or yellowish low melting soHds. Specific gravity at room temperature ranges from 0.9 to 1.15, and they are soluble in acidic media. Higher ethoxylation promotes solubiUty in neutral and alkaline media. The lower ethoxylates form insoluble salts with fatty acids and other anionic surfactants. Salts of higher ethoxylates are soluble, however. Oil solubiUty decreases with increasing ethylene oxide content but many ethoxylates with a fairly even hydrophilic—hydrophobic balance show appreciable oil solubiUty and are used as solutes in the oil phase. 

To illustrate another component of the forest products industry it may be instructive to take a brief look at the pine chemicals industry. The pine chemicals industry is not a new industry, but it is a very small portion of what is now known as the specialty chemicals industry, despite the fact that pine chemicals have been in active use for longer than the modern chemical industry era that arose in the early part of the 20th century. The pine chemicals industry has been extracting useful products such as turpentine and other simple materials for literally hundreds of years. With the rise of the pulp and paper industry, chemicals have in the majority been extracted from two waste streams crude tall oil and crude sulfate turpentine. Crude tall oil can be further separated into a fatty acid fraction, a tall oil fraction, a tail oil rosin fraction, and a tall oil pitch fraction. The crude sulfate fraction is separated into a variety of terpene monomers that can be further transformed into a variety of terpene resins. AH of these streams can be used as raw materials for coatings, various oil applications, surfactants, adhesives, inks, etc. [50]. 

Reproduced with permission from H. Palonen, P. Stenius and C. Strom, Surfactant behaviour of wood resin components. The solubility of rosin and fatty acid soaps in water and in salt solutions. SvenskPapperstidning, 85, R93-R99 (1982). 

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