Many people ask us... "How do you get candle wax from a soybean?"
When a sixty pound bushel of soybeans is harvested from a farm field it is then processed at a grain milling company.
At the mill the sixty pound bushel of soybeans is crushed to separate the soybean meal from the soybean oil. There are 49 pounds of meal and 11 pounds of oil produced from an average 60 pound bushel of beans.
The meal is where the protein content is, so the 49 pounds of meal will be used for animal nutrition products, and soy foods such as soy milk, tofu and texturized soy protein.
At Phytowax, we use the soybean oil to make our clean burning candle waxes. We convert the soybean oil into a wax through a process of partial hydrogenation. At Phytowax, we have researched and improved this wax making process for 10 years to produce quality candle waxes that burn clean, burn longer and are very easy to use in a Village Chandler candle making enterprise.
100% soybean wax burns just fine but often has a somewhat rough surface texture. We add in minority portions of other vegetable oils to achieve such performance characteristics as a smooth surface and ease of mold release.
Soybean wax is a way to convert a major industry that is presently based on consumption of non-renewable petroleum resources to agricultural based sustainable resources. Soywax is part of the larger bio-based industrial revolution that will transform the global economy from nonrewable goods to environmentally preferable renewable goods.
Welcome to the revolution. The future is here today at The Chandler Guild.