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I find when making soap that a difficult part is removing the water.

Currently what I do is melt the soap and then put the melted soap into a vacuum chamber. This draws the water out by vacuum. You cannot boil the water out of the soap at atmospheric pressure because that would damage the soap by the high heat.

The problem with using the vacuum chamber is that as the pressure falls, the soap rises up like an angel food cake and can easily assume 7 or 8 times its original volume. This means I have to have a gigantic container for a relatively small amount of soap. Also, the soap cools as it rises, so it solidifies before all the water is removed. Then, the process has to be repeated, over and over again, removing more of the water each time.

Is there any easier method I can use to remove the water from the soap.

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    $\begingroup$ Are you familiar with th salting out concept? If you add salt to a solution containing an organic substance, it separates out from water. Soaps easily separate out too. I have not tried this, but I recall reading a long time ago from a school textbook. Read more about salting out soaps. $\endgroup$
    – ACR
    Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 3:56
  • $\begingroup$ Or use gentle heating while gradually increasing vacuum. It's more efficient and should bubble less. $\endgroup$
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Jul 26, 2020 at 21:33

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