Synthetic fatty alcohol and acids‐new additions to the raw material pool for soaps and detergents

The United States capacity for synthetic fatty alcohols and their derivatives has been greatly expanded. More recent additions to this alcohol pool have received wide acceptance in the marketplace. In fact, because they bring new features, mainly in the areas of economics and performance, their continued growth both in volume and in the number of applications is assured. With regards to synthetic fatty acids, over the past 30 years many potential candidate acid systems have been examined. A wealth of process technology has been accumulated. The marketplace has been tested with several new tailormade acids, and therefore now we believe the stage is set, the opportunities are at hand and we should see some large scale development in the United States in the near future.