ADDIS ABEBA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
Internship Report
Hosting Company: SHEMU PLC.

Academic Advisor: Baru Debtera

Prepared By: Abdulahi Ahmed & Mikiyas Kibebew

February 2022 G.C 1
Table of Contents

1 Background of the factory 4 Material Balance Calculation

Introduction to soap & Project Work

2 detergent 5

3 Process Description 6 Conclusion and

Recommendation

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 Background of the company

SHEMU PLC is one of the leading manufacturers of soap, detergent and

edible oil in Ethiopia. It got its name from the name of the founder’s
daughter “shemila”.

The company has stablished in the year 1998 EC in Dire Dawa industrial
zone and planted on 25,000m2 of land

This factory is private owned and started with small capital and man powers
at the time of its beginning. But, now days the factory expands its production
to hold around 9 operating plants and opening a job opportunity for over 450
individuals

SHEMU has numerous brands of bar soap with different qualities and
characteristic’s . the prominent SHEMU bar soap Brands are
• SHEMU POLAR
• SHEMU WHITE
• SHEMU PENAL 3
Introduction to Soap and Detergent Production

Definition of Soap
Soap are the sodium and potassium salts of the long chain carboxylic acid. It’s a product which used for cleaning agent.

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 Soap is prepared by hydrolyzing fats or oils under alkaline condition. This reaction is called
SAPONIFICATION

Definition of Detergent

Detergents are the sodium salts of long chain benzene sulphuric acids. They are primarily produced
easily from petrochemicals. The ionic group in detergent is SO3 -Na+.
Detergents are similar on structure and function to soap, but they are more commonly used than soap
Since they are more efficient in a hard water than the soap

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 Soap vs detergent

Soap Detergent

 Soaps are made from fat and alkali by  Detergents are carbonic compounds

Saponification method. which are not alkaline.

 They are cheap.  They are coasty.

 They are not suitable for delicate clothes.  They are suitable for delicate clothes.

 They clean better in hot water.  They clean both in hot and cold water

 They don’t produce lather with hard water  They clean the cloth even in hard water.

 Lot of water is needed to remove soap from  They are removed very easily so less

the cloth quality of water is needed

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 Process Description
Saponification process

 Saponification is the formation of a metallic salt of a fatty acid; such a salt is called a soap.
 The overall saponification process in SHEMU factories are as follow

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 Bar soap production plant
Bar soap produced from different raw materials. The raw materials are of two types

1. Active raw materials : this include the soap noodles which is produced from fatty, oil and caustic soda
through saponification reaction

2. Additives : this includes Fillers such as

Water : used as homogenizing agent in the mixer.
Dolomite : used to increase the weight of the soap and to minimize the cost.

Soluble sodium silicates:- used to prevent corrosion, to bind the soap together and to keep the strength
of the soap.
Sodium tri polyphosphate /STP:- used as a builder for a water softer and lift minerals like ca2+, mg2+
and iron from fabrics without forming precipitate.
Perfume and color:-are used to have a good fragrance or odor and a good brightness color respectively.

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Process flow diagram of bar soap production

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Liquid Detergent production

There are various types of raw material participate in the production of

detergent. This essential raw material of the liquid detergent are
 SLES (sodium lauryl ester sulfate
 Perfume
 STP (sodium tri poly phosphate)
 Soft water
Silcate

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Process flow diagram of detergent production

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Material balance on selected unit operation

Material balance are very important for an industrial process

The objective of material balance is by using known values finding unknown value
This is good to add measurable amount and this also leads us to reduce the cost of the product and also increases
the profit
Material balance on caustic soda dissolving tank

Water(Kg) =?

Xsolid = 0

NaOH in=1550kg NaOHout(Kg) = ?

caustic soda
solution Xsolid = 0.35
Xsolid=0.99

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Min - Mout + Mgeneration - Mconsumption = dm/dt
The process is steady state process i.e. there is no change through time, so dm/dt = 0. And
assumptions, Mass of generation and consumption are zero. Thus, the process is non-
reactive.
Minput = Moutput
.
Mass of NaOHinput + Mass of H2Oin = Mass of NaOHout
1550 kg + MH2O = MNaOH out ……………………………….Eq (1)
.

From component material balance

.

MNaOHin*xsolid + MH2O*Xsolid =MNaOHout*Xsolid……………….Eq (2)

1550*0.99 + MH20*0 = MNaOHout*0.35

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1534.5/0.35 = MNaOHout

MNaOHout = 4384.2857 kg

Now, Substituting Eq (2) in Eq (1)

MH2O = MNaOH out – MNaOH in

MH2O = 4384.2857 – 1550

.
MH2O = 2834.2857 kg This is the mass of water add for dissolution of 1550 Kg
caustic soda.

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 PROJECT PROPOSAL
RECYCLING OF PLASTIC BOTTLE

Introduction
Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastic and reprocessing the material into useful
products.

Problem statement and justification

beside the fact that most of the raw materials for the production of detergent plastic bottling are imported from outside
the country with a high currency this plastic bottles are used for packaging detergent and for other purposes are throw
away to the environment after they used by the customer which can as result causes an environmental pollution

This environmental and health concerns are also related with decreases of soil productivity, improper disposal of
plastic bags have been linked to spread of malaria ,as well as high wastage of foreign currency

For these reasons there is an urgent need to investigate the

behavior of recycled plastic

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Objetives of Project
General objectives
 To assess the general plastic waste recycling &
 to effectively manage the PET plastic bottles by
identifying practical means to introduce Cleaner
production tools mainly recycling

Specific objectives
 To identify ways and methods for collection of PET
bottle waste
 To reduce the cost consumption of import raw materials
by recycling or reusing plastic bottling
 to protect from environmental pollution
 To recommend on what to be done to support the growth
of PET bottle Recycling
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Process and equipment required for plastic recycling

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How the recycle is occur ?

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Conclusion of the report

This project is able to examine comprehensively the environmental inventories of each of the collection,
sorting, transportation and re-processing activity, including the import of recovered plastics to collecting
for re-processing
The project also answers the question about the plastic bottle recycling of reducing import raw material
to our countries
Above all, this project provides insights to retailers and packaging companies on the choices of
packaging materials and the environmental impacts of their decisions given particular recycling logistics
systems in particular countries

Recommendation

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THANK YOU

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