Investigation the properties of silicone based and oil palm based antifoam

Antifoaming agent is substance that have special properties on reducing, preventing and destroying the formation of foam. Foam is a compound that generated during the industrial processing. Silicone based antifoam is the common antifoaming agent used in the industry. However, usage a silicone oil alone is insufficient and low effective to reduce the formation of foam. As well as, oil palm based antifoam that show a potential to reduce the foam of formation. Modification its formulation is needed to enhance the efficiency of these antifoam and to achieve the desired outcome. Thus, in this experiment, formulation of silicone based antifoam and oil palm based antifoam were modified by adding the additives with an appropriate condition and process. The antifoaming agent were tested in different concentration of surfactant using several method testing namely hand shaking test (Bartsch method), automatic stirrer testing and gas bubbling method. Besides, the properties of both silicone based and oil palm based antifoam were analysed the shelf life, pH level, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis, chromameter test, liquid density and viscosity testing. Both of silicone based and oil palm based antifoam are investigated in prevention of foam formation with different concentration of surfactant. Silicone based antifoam is better compared to oil palm based antifoam when undergo several methods. The foam formation is well prevented or destroyed by using silicone based antifoam in shorter time taken. Oil palm based antifoam shows its potential in preventing the foam formation even time taken longer compared to the silicone based antifoam.