Stearic Acid 1820 Candle Grade

Brief Overview
Stearic acid chemicals known as octadecanoic acid is one of the most common and useful types of saturated fatty acids found in combined form in natural animal and vegetable fats. It is a waxy white solid with a chemical formula of CH₃(CH₂)₁₆CO₂H and a molar mass of 284.48 g/mol. Esters and salts of stearic acid are known as stearate. Stearic Acid found commercially is a mixture of approximately equal amounts of stearic and palmitic acids and small amounts of oleic acid. Naturally stearic acid occurs as a mixed triglyceride, or fat, with other long-chain acids and as an ester of fatty alcohol. It is found more abundantly in animal fat than in vegetable fat.

Manufacturing Process

Candle-grade stearic acid is fabricated by the hydrolysis reaction of oil and fats under high pressure and temperature. The hydrolysis reaction yields chains of fatty acid and glycerol. The fatty acids are purified through washing and fractional distillation. The fractional column allows the condensation of each chemical compound of fatty acids. The stearic acid distillate is collected from the fractional column.

    Stearic acid is used in the candle manufacturing industry as an additive to improve the properties of the product. The plasticising properties of stearic acid helps to adjust the hardness of the candle. In addition, the compound is used to decrease wax transparency. In addition, the inclusion of stearic acid increases the melting point of paraffin in wax. As a result, the wax will have a longer burn time. Stearic acid has an inhibiting property that allows the retention of fragrance in candles. Fragrance migration heavily decreases with the addition of stearic acid.