Are candles made from palm wax or paraffin wax better?

In 1823, people discovered stearic acid from animal and vegetable oils. This historical discovery was earlier than the discovery of paraffin wax. The hard properties of stearic acid are very beneficial to the molding and shape retention of candles. People soon applied it to candles. ‘s manufacture. Since stearic acid prepared from animal fat has a smell when it is burned, stearic acid prepared from vegetable oil is more widely used in subsequent industrial applications. And this raw material is rich in palm oil. In the subsequent production process, people called the raw materials from palm oil for candle making as stearin, stearic acid, stearin, palm fatty acid, palmitic acid, hardened oil, etc. The variety has a single function, but people are all Classify them as vegetable waxes. Now, we use palm oil as the starting material, which has been refined, chemically hydrogenated, partially hydrogenated or not hydrogenated. The raw material of candles is named palm wax.

Candles made of paraffin wax are expensive to transport in order to prevent deformation and even need to be refrigerated during transportation in summer. Because paraffin has a characteristic, its softening point and melting point temperature difference is 15 ℃. Therefore, paraffin wax melted at 58°C begins to soften and deform at 43°C.

This is not the case with palm wax. Their melting point is usually 53-58 °C (there are also higher melting points), but the freezing point and melting point are only 1-2 °C away, and the softening point and melting point are basically the same. Due to this feature, the palm wax candle has a high heat resistance point. Looking at the above data, we found that it is nearly 15°C higher than the softening point of paraffin wax. This feature can effectively prevent the candle from being deformed by high temperature in summer. Not only does carnauba wax have this effect alone, but after mixing with paraffin wax (usually the ratio of carnauba wax is 50%~80%), the heat resistance can be changed completely different from that of paraffin wax.

Even if carnauba wax is used as the inner core, the outer layer is dipped in paraffin wax or double-cast paraffin wax, because the inner core of carnauba wax is hard and not deformed, it can ensure that the outer ring will not be deformed by heat.

In addition to raw materials and additives, the wick is often referred to as the soul of a candle. It is an important factor to measure the quality of candles. It determines the combustion of the candle, and its composition and combustion products are of great importance to the quality of the candle. In the United States, there are more than 140 wicks of different brands and specifications.

In the process of candle testing, it was found that under the same conditions, maintaining basically the same flame, the burning speed of different raw material ratios is different, and this difference shows a regularity, that is, the amount of palm wax is more or less. which is inversely proportional to the rate of combustion.

Formulas with a 50/50 ratio of carnauba/paraffin to pure carnauba and a 75/25 ratio of carnauba/paraffin have 11-18% higher burn rates; while 75/25 (paraffin/carnauba) burns faster than The former two are 36.8~24.5% higher. As for the pure paraffin formula, the wick had to be adjusted, otherwise the flame would be too large. In the cast candles tested, there was no tearing phenomenon in palm wax, while there was serious tearing in pure paraffin wax.

It can be seen from the comparison that in the case of maintaining a stable flame, the burning speed of pure palm wax is slow. When mixed wax is used, especially when the amount of palm wax exceeds 50%, the burning speed of candles is greatly slowed down, which is undoubtedly very beneficial to consumers. Combustion and emissions are reduced, which is also beneficial to the environment. The important change is that the wick is adjusted, so the overall change is very large.

After palm wax and paraffin wax are mixed (including inner and outer double layers), the transparency of candle appearance, overall hardness, heat resistance, wick specification, surface finish, cost reduction, especially in terms of reducing black smoke, compared with pure paraffin products , resulting in a huge change. Practice has proved that the composition of carnauba wax is more than 50%, and the performance of the candle is improved more obviously, and this mixed wax can no longer be regarded as paraffin as the main raw material, it should be called palm wax candle, and paraffin is the auxiliary raw material.

Through experiments, it is found that candles made of paraffin wax and palm wax have long and short ones, and they are more environmentally friendly candles after mixing.