Soybean Oil

[Malvar62]

Greetings all.. I have a ton of outdated soybean oil and read a recent article that says I can turn it into saop at a 100% saponification... I was wondering if I can use it as a laundry soap??

Thanks

 

[Ford Prefect]

No experience with soybean oil, and leaving aside the question as to whether it is a good idea to use outdated oils in soapmaking, soapcalc shows a 100% soybean oil soap as having 0 cleansing power. Perhaps you should make a small batch and see how it works on your laundry. There are internet recipes you can search for that show how to combine soap, washing soda and borax to make laundry detergent. Perhaps that might work for you.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

All soap cleans. The cleaning number in soapcalc is just the sum of the lauric and myristic fatty acids. It's less IF a soap will clean and more how aggressively it will do so.

However, expired soybean oils is problematic nevertheless. Is it rancid? There are processes to clean and deodorize the oil before making soap, but then you're still going to be left with soybean soap, which isn't going to be great for laundry. One of those things where the time and effort aren't worth the end result, IMO.

If by 'a ton' you mean several gallons or more, I'd check your local craigslist or similar and find somebody making biodiesel. Donate to them, or sell for next to nothing, then spend your precious time making soap you want to make because you want to make it instead of trying to "use up" a substandard ingredient.