Enhanced TDS
Identification & Functionality
- Chemical Family
- Chemical Name
- Supplied By
- Agrochemical Functions
- Cleaning Ingredients Functions
- Cosmetic Ingredients Functions
- Technologies
- Product Families
Features & Benefits
- Benefit Claims
- Labeling Claims
- HII Features
Applications & Uses
- Markets
- Applications
- Segments
- Applications
- Home Care Applications
- I&I Cleaning Applications
Properties
- Physical Form
- Appearance
- Clear to slightly turbid, substantially free of foreign matter (at 30°C)
- Soluble in
- Water
Regulatory & Compliance
- Chemical Inventories
Safety & Health
- Biodegradability and Environmental Safety
- Linear alcohol ethoxylates, including the SURFONIC L series surfactants, undergo rapid and extensive biodegradation under both laboratory and environmental conditions.
- Their mineralization to CO2 and water (ultimate biodegradation) is essentially complete during biological wastewater treatments at warm to cold water temperatures.
- They are degraded by bacteria in rivers, lakes, groundwater and sediment as well.
- The major mechanism of biodegradation is cleavage of the ethoxylate chain from the alkyl group with oxidation of the latter to fatty acid.
- The fatty acid degrades more rapidly than the ethoxylate chain, which is broken down by sequential oxidation and removal of ethoxylate units.
- Alcohol ethoxylates begin to lose their toxicity toward aquatic organisms as soon as biodegradation begins.
- Water containing degraded surfactant has been shown not to adversely affect fish, invertebrates and algae.
- Thus, while alcohol ethoxylates are toxic to aquatic organisms, in the event of a spill into a waterway any acute effects would be limited in area and time.
- SURFONIC L-series surfactants and other linear alcohol ethoxylates pose no serious threat to the environment.
- They do not accumulate in any environmental compartment and are found, if at all, only at concentrations below chronic effects levels.
- Cleaning products containing SURFONIC L-series surfactants may be disposed of safely by flushing down the drain with water.
Packaging & Availability
Storage & Handling
- Storage and Handling Conditions
- SURFONIC L24-7 surfactant may be satisfactorily stored in carbon steel tanks using steel pipes and pumps.
- Caution must be exercised, however, to keep the material in the anhydrous state to prevent severe corrosion to the carbon steel tank and related equipment.
- A drier on the breathing nozzle is recommended to help maintain anhydrous conditions in the storage tank.
- For longer term color stability, it is recommended that the product be stored under an inert atmosphere.
- Solid sediment may form upon standing.
- There should be circulation in the storage vessel to keep solids suspended.
- Low pressure steam coils in storage tanks and steam tracing of transfer lines should be provided in cases where low environmental temperatures may make pumping of the product difficult.