Soap from Petroleum

Shell Co.'s Second UK Detergent Plant

OF great interest to all producers of vegetable oils, is the recent an nouncement by the Shell Oil Com pany that it will soon be operating a chemical plant in England, which will, amongst other things, be producing syn thetic soaps and wetting agents. (See article on page 66, April “PIM”), A Shell plant near Manchester has been in operation since 1942, producing deter gents which have been much in demand in soap-rationed Britain—so much so that it is exnected that manufacture will be doubled to 50,000 tons, in this plant alone, by the middle of this year.

The Teepol range of products—as these are known —is manufactured from petro leum by a process developed by Shell research chemists as far back as 1931.

These detergents are now used in in creasing quantities in the cosmetic, tex tile, laundry, leather and furniture in dustries, or wherever large volumes of water are used for industrial processes.

But it is expected that in the future their use will spread to the domestic field.

They will be put out as special washing powders and will be used for dish-wash ing, laundry work and cleaning paint, silver and glass.

In the present state of UK domestic economy, this synthetic “soap” is par ticularly useful, as it releases large quan tities of vegetable oil for human con sumption. It is unlikely, therefore, that the demand for copra will fall off for some time to come. If the new deter gents become firmly established in public favour, however, coconut planters in the years to come may find a diminished market for their product.