These are the two ends of the global laundry detergent market. Consumers in the US, accustomed to liquids or newer unit-dose pod products, may not be aware that powders are alive and well in Africa, India, China, Latin America, and elsewhere in the developing world.
Powders also persist in highly developed western European countries, where families prize them for their whitening ability. Related: Periodic Graphics: Powder versus liquid detergents. Liquids, with their bold hues and connotations of upward mobility, are steadily taking market share from powders as standards of living improve around the world. Still, demand for powdered detergents continues to grow. Momentum may be on the side of liquid detergents, but for now liquids and powders coexist in laundry detergent markets around the globe.
Contact us to opt out anytime. But by volume, powders lead comfortably. Some 14 million metric tons of powdered detergents were sold around the world last year, double the tonnage of liquids, according to the ingredient supplier Lubrizol.
Laundry detergents based on synthetic ingredients are a relatively recent innovation. For centuries until World War I, people washed their clothes with soaps that were made by saponifying fats and oils into fatty acid salts. German chemical companies developed an alkyl sulfate surfactant, a synthetic version of the fatty acid salts, during the war when Germany was unable to obtain the fats and oils needed for soap.
No doubt the firm also considered the premium it could charge. In part because of this difference in emphasis, liquids and powders have significantly different formulas today, explains Shoaib Arif, manager of applications and technical service at Pilot Chemical, a surfactant maker. You need more chemistry knowledge. In powdered detergents, the main surfactant is linear alkylbenzene sulfonate.
In contrast, most liquids also contain alcohol ethoxylates, which are effective on challenging oily stains, she says. Moreover, Arif says, liquids tend to include a broad range of surfactants, including LAS, alcohol ethoxylates, ether sulfates, and amine oxides. Other ingredients present their own challenges in liquids. For enzymes to be stable, liquids must contain an additive like borax or calcium formate.
Liquids rely instead on expensive complexing polymers like polyethyleneimine ethoxylate. Finally, powders contain copious amounts of cheap builder. Phosphates were long ago removed from laundry detergents because they can promote excessive plant and algae growth in lakes and rivers, but powders still bristle with sodium carbonate and zeolites that tie up hard water ions like calcium and magnesium.
To build liquid detergents, especially for hard water, formulators must turn to alternative builders, such as sodium citrate, and pump up surfactant levels. The result, Arif says, is that liquids are quite effective but typically more expensive than powders. An analysis of US laundry detergents published last year by the Wirecutter, a consumer product testing service owned by the New York Times, chose Tide Ultra Stain Release liquid as the best product overall.
The Tide variety was also among the most expensive detergents the service tested. Related: Already dominant in making ethoxylates in Brazil, Oxiteno takes on the U. The situation is different in Germany, where a leading testing service, Stiftung Warentest, consistently ranks powders above liquids for heavy-duty cleaning of whites. In October the firm published a test of 18 powdered detergents and 5 liquid-containing pods. Its conclusion: bleach-based powders are markedly better than the pods, which occupied the last five places in the test.
The different conclusions of the US and German tests highlight differing wash conditions in the US and Europe as well as a key advantage of powders over liquids: the ability to add a bleaching agent. Most premium powdered laundry detergents contain the oxygen-based bleach sodium percarbonate plus a chemical, usually tetraacetylethylenediamine TAED , that activates the bleach at low temperatures.
In this was launched as Tide laundry detergent. By it became the number one brand. The surfactant was the detergents basic cleaner but it was use of phosphates as builders in its detergents that was the game changer a system still used today by some manufacturers.
By sales of detergent completely out passed those of soap for laundry cleaning. Although used back in these new style Enzymes became commonly known as biological cleaning powders But not great for those with sensitive skin. By there had become a trend for liquid laundry detergents as Laundry tablets disappeared from the market. This was mainly down to the fact that Laundry powders and laundry tablets were clogging up washing machines.
This new technology also improved washing of clothes due to the fact that laundry liquids dissolved much faster than laundry powder in water. Laundry Liquid also dissolved completely at lower temperatures unlike washing powders. This was mainly down to an environmental drive by governments to reduce packaging and our carbon footprint. Whilst this was a great idea clothes washing became complicated for the average user of laundry detergents.
These concentrates would often damage clothes and washing machines as the dosing rates could be complicated. But this time they changed the way the dosing was applied. Current Treatment Options in Allergy , vol. Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.
Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Sensitive Skin? Featured Video. Article Sources. The Spruce uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. World Wildlife Fund Svedman, Cecilia, et al. Read More. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for TheSpruce.
At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.
Previously, we looked at how a typical plastic water bottle is manufactured, its journey from ink-black crude oil to a thin, clear plastic. There are several main ingredients in detergents that help them get your clothes fresh and clean, and each serves a specific purpose. The main obstacle in cleaning your clothes is the type of dirt that needs to be removed.
Sweat and other dirt and grease found on your clothing, however does not dissolve readily in water and therein lies the biggest problem of all. We need something that will dissolve oils and dirt.
We fill our washing machines with regular old water. So we need a chemical that can dissolve dirt and dissolve in water so it can carry all the dirt down the drain. Meet the main ingredient of laundry detergent: a surfactant. This dirt-removing chemical has some pretty neat properties that allow it to get dirt and grime out of our clothes. There are many types of surfactants.
Its tail—the long zig-zag chain—is attracted to grease and oils. This is the part with the hexagonal shape in the picture. This is what allows the detergent to dissolve in wash water and carry the dirt away from the clothing also known as lowering the surface tension of the water. But where do linear alkylbenzenesulfonates come from? Crude oil, of course! Well, actually a chemical called benzene, which is a prominent component of crude oil.
Another common place to find benzene: in gasoline in small quantities. However, with a bit of chemistry, benzene can be transformed into a surfactant.
Who would have thought?
0コメント