sodium hydoxide vs ultrasil 1o vs lye

[cjf12]

Curios if i am wrong on this but are these not all the same with the exception of ultrasil 10 has a buffering agent to keep its ph in check. My wife has tons of lye for soap making and i was thinking of robbing some for cleaning my membrane. Thoughts?

[ash10383]

I can tell you as I'm sure you're wife can if she make soap: sodium hydroxide and lye are one in the same. But how that compares to Ultrasil 10 for membrane cleaning I do not know.

[maple flats]

While there are loads of ways to cut corners in maple production, it's still best to use whatever the membrane manufacturer says to use for cleaning it. Membranes are not all the same, a soap intended for one membrane may not be good for another.

[bowhunter]

Lye and sodium hydroxide are basically the same thing. The RO soaps are a little better "engineered" for cleaning membranes than lye, but lye works for many of the smaller applications just fine. I've been using it for several years with no ill affects. You must make sure anything you use is food grade and that you follow the temperature and pH recommendations from the membrane manufacturer. Many membranes in maple service have been damaged by cleaning at high pH or high temperature, particularly on nanofiltration membranes. If you have a large commercial RO I would probably bite the bullet and buy the recommended RO soap for cleaning.

[DrTimPerkins]

Most (not all) commercial RO soap is buffered. That means you cannot exceed the pH limits of the membranes it was designed for if you put too much in, so you tend to err on the side of using plenty (which means good cleaning, but no damage to membrane). With lye, you're in the Goldilocks scenario, could be too little -- leading to inadequate cleaning and reduced sap processing rate over time, could be too much - burning out your membrane, but it needs to be just right to achieve the correct balance. With lye uou have to determine how much to use in order to ensure that the "soap" was at an effective concentration (achieved adequate cleaning), and that you don't exceed the pH limit and destroy your membrane(s). You could save a little $ using lye, but end up spending big $ to replace your membranes with one mistake.

[Waynehere]

Anyone have a link/source for small amounts of soap? My local supply only has 5# for $80. It would take me years to go through that and it would probably be spoiled by then... LOL

[Bricklayer]

Cdl sells the small containers for like $12