They also offer the environmental advantages of biodegradability and low toxicity. Relative Economics Commercial surfactants are based on petroleum, vegetable and animal-derived fats and oils. The oleochemical industry has long appreciated that soybean oil is the lowest cost, most readily available source of C-18 stearic and linoleic acids among all the vegetable oil sources. This chemical composition holds excellent application potential for soy oil-derived industrial surfactants when modified chemically to provide required product performance. Significant process cost savings are potentially possible for these products because the processing and refining steps typically used in producing refined soy oil for food-grade quality can potentially be reduced for industrial applications.
Soybean oil is processed primarily for food purposes.
The cost of refining soy oil to edible-grade quality increases the oil cost by about 15 percent. Fatty acid or industrial emulsifier industry applications neither require nor can afford food-grade quality. For oleochemical use, degummed soybean oil is probably sufficient for chemical modification into surfactants at a cost of about 2 cents per pound. Acidulated soybean soapstock can be sufficiently upgraded with current process technology to produce many industrial-grade emulsifiers. Soy surfactant feedstocks such as de-gummed soy oil fatty acids and acidulated soybean soapstock provide a very economically competitive raw material cost base.