Duckbar’s Delight by a Kevin Dunn lye exceeds H2O???

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LynetteO

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I’m currently reading Kevin Dunn’s book “Scientific Soapmaking”. I keep seeing that he used more lye than H20 & I thought the lye amount should not be greater than the H2O. No less than 1:1. Am I incorrect? Am I misreading? image.jpgimage.jpg
Apparently I can’t read. His “Lye” is a reference to a 5O% lye solution NOT NaOH amount. 🤦‍♀️
 
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"Lye" in the context of Dunn's book refers to a 50% masterbatch of NaOH and water.

For example, see page 87, first full paragraph, "...the blend ... called for11.892 oz of NaOH. Thus we need 23.784 oz of lye...." I'm sure Dunn specifically defines what he means by "lye" earlier in his book, but I didn't take the time to look that up for you.

So 28.80 g lye is equivalent to 14.4 g water plus 14.4 g NaOH. In the Duck formula, he adds another 14.4 g more water. That means the finished lye concentration for the batch is --

Lye concentration % = NaOH weight / (Weight of NaOH + water) X 100 = 14.4 / (14.4 + 14.4 + 14.4) X 100 = 14.4 / 43.2 X 100 = 33.3%

The use of "lye" to mean a liquid solution of an alkali and water is the correct usage of the word. I realize people sometimes use "lye" more loosely to mean solid NaOH (or solid KOH), but that's not accurate.
 
@DeeAnna I had actually just gone back to re-read that chapter & saw that. OyVey! I knew there had to be SOMETHING this reader was missing! 😂
😊 Thx!

I truly 💗 a good word & one for today that I clearly learned during my college Chem years but had 💯forgotten is…
Stoichiometry How many grams of A are required to react with given quantity of B? The method used to study this stoichiometric question is Stoichiometry.
 
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