Saltwater soap

Saltwater soap, also called sailors' soap, is a special soap for use with saline water, like seawater. Saltwater soap is a potassium-based soap. Normal fresh water soap will not lather or dissolve in salt water due to high levels of sodium chloride in the water. To be an effective cleaning agent, soap must be able to dissolve in water.

Normal soap is a salt of a fatty acid. Soaps are mainly used as surfactants for washing, bathing, and cleaning. Soaps for cleansing are made by treating vegetable or animal oils and fats with a strongly alkaline solution. Fats and oils are composed of triglycerides; three molecules of fatty acids are attached to a single molecule of glycerol. The alkaline solution, which is often called lye (although the term "lye soap" refers almost exclusively to soaps made with sodium hydroxide), brings about a chemical reaction known as saponification. In this reaction, the triglyceride fats are first hydrolyzed into free fatty acids, and then these combine with the alkali to form crude soap: an amalgam of various soap salts, excess fat or alkali, water, and liberated glycerol (glycerin).

Saltwater soaps use potassium as a replacement for sodium salts. Potassium is a chemical similar to sodium. Potassium can combine with long fatty acid tails also to manufacture soap molecules. As there are low potassium levels in sea water, potassium soaps can dissolve and make salt water soap work.

In places that do not have freshwater or need to conserve freshwater, cleaning can be done with the use of salt water and saltwater soap.

See also

• Evaporator (marine)
• Navy shower
• Potassium hydroxide
• Potash
• Elephant toothpaste
• Saponification value
• Lithium soap
• Murphy Oil Soap
• Potassium carbonate
• Feldspar