Question: hi Jessica,how is the powder from washing powder made? :)

Jessica Liley answered on 13 Nov 2013:

Hey asmara! Washing powder has lots of different chemicals inside which do very different jobs – like enzymes (biological molecules which break down fats in food stains), bleach (to make your white clothes even whiter!), builders (these are water-softeners), perfume to make it smell nice and fresh, and the main ingredients which are called “surfactants” – these makes your toothpaste, washing powder and shampoo really foamy! They are amazing little molecules which arrange themselves around fat droplets and break them apart, so that water and oil can mix more easily and your clothes can be made clean!

Most surfactants are made by reacting different chemicals together, usually involving lots of heat and mixing for hours (sometimes days!). You need the heat to make the different molecules react and combine together to make the final chemical.

Then, to make them all into a nice white powder, you add them to a machine called an “agglomerator”, like a HUGE food processor! Everything is mixed up, heated and dried and turned into powder, put in a nice shiny package and driven straight to the shops!