`Appliance Easily Makes Soap from Used Household Oil - Olive Oil Times
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Appliance Easily Makes Soap from Used Household Oil

By Naomi Tupper
Mar. 21, 2013 09:00 UTC
Summary Summary

The ​‘Soap Factory’ is a new inven­tion that trans­forms used kitchen oil into biodegrad­able soap in a prac­ti­cal and safe man­ner, aim­ing to reduce water pol­lu­tion. Designed by Analia White, the device is shaped as a small white box and can turn a liter of oil into 850 grams of soap, offer­ing an envi­ron­men­tally friendly solu­tion for house­holds look­ing to recy­cle waste oil and reduce water con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.

The ​‘Soap Factory’ trans­forms used kitchen oil into biodegrad­able soap in a prac­ti­cal and safe way, avoid­ing water pol­lu­tion.

The new pro­to­type, which has been patented, but is not yet avail­able for sale, is based on tra­di­tional meth­ods of mak­ing soap. However its inno­v­a­tive design has been adapted to the mod­ern lifestyle where time is pre­cious, envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­ity is impor­tant and eco­nomic solu­tions to run­ning a house­hold are highly desir­able.

The designer, 30 year old Polytechnic University of Valencia indus­trial engi­neer­ing stu­dent Analia White, was the recip­i­ent of the International James Dyson Award for design for the eco­nom­i­cally and envi­ron­men­tally friendly inno­va­tion.

The appli­ance is sim­ple in appear­ance and design, shaped as a small white box. Waste oil is added to an upper reser­voir, fil­tered and then passed into an inner bowl to mix with other prod­ucts like caus­tic soda and water. This mix­ture is then poured into a mold and set for 48 hours result­ing in eas­ily unmold­able bars of biodegrad­able soap.

Oil is the major com­po­nent of the prod­uct and other ingre­di­ents are eas­ily obtain­able and cheap, mak­ing it a viable option for many house­holds, although there is also the option to add a fra­grance if a more lux­u­ri­ous soap is desired.

The main ingre­di­ent of the soap is oil and any type can be used from cheap veg­etable oils to extra vir­gin olive oil. With more and more peo­ple choos­ing to cook with­ex­tra vir­gin olive oil due to its health ben­e­fits, despite its higher price tag, it is reas­sur­ing to know that any oil that is left from cook­ing has the poten­tial to be re uti­lized in this way.

Not only does the new inven­tion reduce waste, it can also help con­sid­er­ably with the reduc­tion of water pol­lu­tion from oil being washed down the sink. While many sys­tems are in place to recy­cle oil in com­mer­cial kitchens, recy­cling at home can be messy and time con­sum­ing. This new inno­va­tion is designed to min­i­mize the effort required to recy­cle and pro­vide the incen­tive to do so.

An aver­age per­son gen­er­ates around four liters of waste oil in a year, with each liter capa­ble of con­t­a­m­i­nat­ing thou­sands of liters of water. The Soap Factory has the capac­ity to turn a liter of oil into 850 grams of soap, which can be used in var­i­ous ways such as directly the wash dishes, or even used in wash­ing machines or dish­wash­ers if grated, paving the way to a greener house­hold.


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