Industrial cleaning and water treatment

Surfactants possess functions such as wetting, emulsification, dispersion, and defoaming, which can enhance the cleaning and degreasing effects. Therefore, they are widely used in industrial cleaning. As flocculants, dispersants, defoamers, and bactericides, surfactants can also be applied in water treatment to effectively improve water quality.

● Wetting agents/Penetrants: Used in scenarios such as metal degreasing, cleaning of electronic/optical parts, spray line cleaning, CIP cleaning, heat exchanger pickling, and boiler descaling. By reducing surface tension, they enable cleaning fluids to quickly spread on the surfaces of substrates like metals, glass, plastics, and ceramics, helping acid/alkaline solutions penetrate into scale layers, promoting the penetration and dissolution of chemical cleaning agents, which in turn facilitates ultrasonic and spray cleaning. Common types: non-ionic (fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ethers, secondary alcohol polyethers, APG); amphoteric ionic (mainly betaine types).

● Cleaning agents: Used in various industrial cleaning scenarios including industrial equipment cleaning, industrial substrate cleaning, RO membrane cleaning, CIP cleaning, boiler cleaning, high-pressure spray cleaning, beer bottle cleaning, building central air conditioning cleaning, automobile cooling system cleaning, automobile fuel system cleaning, ship deck cleaning, and semiconductor wafer cleaning. The surfactant components can effectively disperse organic contaminants and oil deposits, improving CIP efficiency. Common types: low-foaming non-ionic, amphoteric surfactants.

● Emulsifiers/Solubilizers: Used in mechanical processing oil stain cleaning, petrochemical storage tank cleaning, petrochemical oil pipe cleaning, and automobile parts cleaning. By reducing surface tension, they can disperse and dissolve insoluble greases, cutting fluids, asphaltenes, etc., in the cleaning fluid to prevent redeposition. Common types: anionic (alkylbenzene sulfonates, AOS); non-ionic (fatty alcohol polyethers, EO/PO block copolymers, APEO substitutes).

● Dispersants/Antiscalants: Used in exchanger cleaning (for iron oxide scale), removal of carbon black residues, and dispersion of circulating water scale/sediment. They can stabilize suspended solid particles (such as oxide scales, metal powders, pigments, carbon black, etc.) and prevent dirt deposition or re-adhesion. Common types: sulfosuccinates, lignosulfonates, polycarboxylate-modified surfactants.

● Degreasers/Oil-removing additives: Used in steel part degreasing, automobile pre-painting treatment, and cutting fluid cleaning. They can work synergistically with alkaline agents to clean heavy oils, greases, asphalt, etc., promoting saponification and emulsification. Common types: non-ionic (low-foaming alcohol ethers), anionic (SDBS, AOS), phosphate esters.

● Defoamers/A: Used in high-pressure spray, CIP, circulating cleaning tanks, evaporator systems, etc., they can suppress or quickly break down foam to prevent the spray/circulation system from being affected in efficiency due to foam. Common types: polyether modified silicone oil, EO/PO block copolymer, long-chain alcohols.

● Metal corrosion inhibitors/scale inhibitors: Used in acid washing cleaning solutions, neutral cleaning solutions for aluminum/magnesium alloys. The surfactant components can adsorb on the metal surface, forming a hydrophobic layer, preventing corrosion by acids/alkalis/oxidants. Common types: imidazoline derivatives, cationic quaternary ammonium salts, phosphate esters.

● Demulsifiers: Used in oil-water separation during industrial wastewater treatment, including cutting fluid wastewater, petrochemical oily wastewater, and oil from oilfield production. By destroying the emulsification film of wastewater or crude oil, oil-water can be separated quickly. Common types: modified nonionic (EO/PO block copolymer, resin type), cationic surfactants.

● Coagulants: Used in drinking water purification, suspended matter treatment in sewage, pre-treatment of polymer membranes, for disinfection of storage tanks. Through mechanisms such as charge neutralization, bridging action, net capture and sweeping, suspended particles and colloidal substances in water are aggregated into larger floc， facilitating sedimentation， filtration or air flotation for removal， thereby clarifying water quality.

● Auxiliary filter aids/dewatering agents: Used for municipal/industrial sludge conditioning， improving sludge dewatering performance， and increasing filtration rate. Common types： cationic surfactants (cooperative PAM)， low molecular weight dispersing surfactants.

● Disinfectants/algal control additives: Used in municipal/industrial water supply treatment， circulating cooling water， RO pre-treatment， tank disinfection， etc. Especially quaternary ammonium salt surfactants have both surface activity and disinfection/sterilization functions. Common types： alkyl dimethyl benzyl chlorohydrin ammonium (BKC)， double-chain quaternary ammonium salts.