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<pre>Without getting any direct responses to my less-than-informed question about
potential uses for the water by-product, having read more in the thread,
OBVIOUSLY there is too high a salt content in this by-product for it to be
used "agriculturally".
However, I'm thinking that there is a whole line of "beauty products" which
use water from the Dead Sea, supposedly because the salt content of the water
has benefit to the human skin. So, in reading Adrian's posting about the
antioxidant qualities of the water produced in the pressing operation, as a
soapmaker, I couldn't help but wonder . . .
What if, instead of the de-ionized water which is often used in the
soapmaking process, the water used for the lye solution could be this by-
product? Not being chemically oriented at all, I do have to wonder if the
high salt content would disrupt the action of the lye in the saponification
process, though barilla ash has a high salt content, and that is what has been
used for centuries to extract the lye for soapmaking! One benefit from
producing a soap with salt content is that you get a nice hard soap! If the
water used in the soap making also had the antioxidant qualities, would those
qualities 1) remain in tact through the soapmaking processes, and 2) would
any benefit be realized from using such a soap?
Naturally, if the answer is "yes" to both of the above questions, then olive
oil soap making industry should be located as closely to the pressing sites as
possible, for transporting quantities of this by-product would be impractical.
Water weighs about 10 lbs per gallon, so shipping massive amounts of this
water would be costly.
Has anyone tried making soap by using the water by-product in addition to
using 100% olive oil? I think it is a concept worth considering!

(Thanks to all for putting up with my level of ignorance and for asking what
probably seem to be silly questions!)
bets

Betsy Packard
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