Fleece To Grease Fleece To Grease What have

Fleece To Grease

Fleece To Grease What have you learnt so far about sheep’s wool? What is lanolin? What can lanolin be used for? What did Mr Crowe and Mr Dawe do in 1925?

How Do We Get Woolgrease From Sheep? § Most sheep have their wool shaved off when the weather gets warmer

How Do We Get Woolgrease From Sheep? § Woolgrease is a sticky brown wax that coats the fibres of sheep’s wool § The wool is washed several times and the water is collected - it contains the woolgrease Washing Dirty fleece covered in woolgrease Clean fleece Woolgrease Where do you think the clean wool could be used?

Question… How many sheep need washing to fill one of these 200 kg drums with woolgrease? 1000!

How Do We Make Lanolin From Woolgrease?

Woolgrease Arrives In Drums The drums of woolgrease are sent to the factory where the woolgrease will be cleaned and refined and turned into lanolin

But There’s A Problem… How do you think the sticky, thick woolgrease is made runny so that it can be moved through pipes into big tanks? …woolgrease is a sticky brown wax

Woolgrease Is Melted In Ovens The drums are placed in large ovens to melt the woolgrease. The melted grease can then be pumped into tanks where other ingredients are added to clean and refine the woolgrease and turn it into lanolin.

Let’s Make Some Lanolin

What Do You Think Is Happening Here On Our Site? “I’m taking a sample from the large reaction tank. ” “I’m controlling the reaction tank from the computer in the control room. ” “I’m dropping off the sample at the labs for testing. ”

Sorting Activity Do you think you can use your senses of sight and smell to examine the samples of woolgrease and lanolin from Croda? Can you put them in the correct order by guessing which stage of processing they are at… from fleece to grease?

Sorting Activity Do you think you can use your senses of sight and smell to examine the samples of woolgrease and lanolin from Croda? 2 1 4 Can you put them in the correct order by guessing which stage of processing they are at… from fleece to grease? Did you get it right? ? !! 3

Where Is Lanolin Used? In lipsticks and lip balms, to make lips soft. On brass instruments, to make moving parts slide more easily. On leather, to stop it from drying out and cracking. On boat propellers, to stop sea creatures growing on them! In nappy cream, to make skin soft and waterproof to prevent nappy rash.

Let’s Look More Closely…

Let’s Look More Closely…

ACTIVITY 1 Oil And Water

From: Melanie Williams @ Sumptuous Skincare Ltd To: Trainee Scientists Subject: Separating Liquids Dear Trainee Scientists, 1 I believe you know how woolgrease is extracted from sheep’s wool. At Sumptuous Skincare Ltd, we make lanolin from woolgrease. Our operators melt the woolgrease, pour it into a tank, add other ingredients and stir the mixture. The mixture is pumped into another tank and the lanolin floats to the top. Our operators then pump out the top layer of lanolin to use in other products. We need to separate as much lanolin as possible from the other liquids. However, we are experiencing a problem. Our scientists believe that one of the liquids may be affecting the separation. We have therefore sent you samples of the liquids we believe may be causing the problem. We would like you to observe the effect each of these ingredients has on the separation process. Please can you find out whether we should remove any of these liquids from the tank? We would be grateful to receive your observations and any advice you may have. Kind regards. Melanie Williams Technical Manager Sumptuous Skincare Ltd

We Want To Find Out… Which liquid: C, D or E… is stopping the lanolin (sample A) from separating from the water (sample B) and causing delays with the settling out process? Today we are using vegetable oil to act as the lanolin. Lanolin is solid at room temperature and if we wanted to use it, we would have to melt it with heat which is too tricky in the classroom.

Working In Groups Of 3 You will need: § Bottles containing: § § § Sample A Sample B Sample C Sample D Sample E § 3 plastic jars and lids § Pipettes

Work Like A Scientist Part 1 § Add 40 ml of A and 40 ml of B, put the lid on and shake… § Did the oil and water mix? § Did shaking make the liquids mix? § Why do you think this happened? § Oil and water do not mix § If oil and water are poured together, the oil will float on the surface of the water § When 2 liquids do not mix, this is called immiscible

Work Like A Scientist Part 2 § To one jar, add liquid C then shake § To one jar, add liquid D then shake § To one jar, add liquid E then shake § What do we need to think about to make it a fair test? § Keep the amount of each liquid the same § Keep the length of shaking time the same § Keep the type of shaking the same

We Are Investigating… We could change… We will change… Our question is…. We will keep the same We could measure/observe… We will measure/observe

We Are Investigating… We could change… Amount of extra product Which extra product We could measure/observe… How long to shake it Amount of time to separate How to shake it We will change… (independent) Our question is…. Which extra product We will measure/observe (dependent) Which of product C, D or E mixes A and B? We will keep the same Amount of extra product Which extra product Amount of time to separate How long to shake it How to shake it

Recording Your Results Experiment details A+B+C A+B+D A+B+E Did the liquids separate? (Y/N? ) How long did they take to separate? (Seconds)

Think About… Which liquid: C, D or E… is stopping the lanolin (sample A) from separating from the water (sample B) and causing delays with the settling out process?

What Will You Report Back? From: Trainee Scientists To: Sumptuous Skincare Ltd Subject: Separating liquids Dear Melanie, We have been testing sample liquids C, D and E to see whether they affect the separation of oil and water and we found that. . . Yours sincerely, Trainee Scientists

ACTIVITY 2 The Pastillator

What Are Pastilles? § Some of our customers want a product that is easier to use, and so they want it in a form of little blobs called pastilles § These pastilles are made in a machine called a pastillator

Challenge! How accurate do you think you are at making and counting drops? How many drops of water do you think will fit onto a penny? Let’s try!

From: Melanie Williams @ Sumptuous Skincare Ltd To: Trainee Scientists Subject: The Pastillator: Making Droplets Dear Trainee Scientists, 1 You have learnt how we make lanolin from sheep’s woolgrease. Lanolin can be mixed with other ingredients to make lots of other products. You saw one of our lanolin products on a machine called a pastillator. The lanolin product is heated up and is runny when it enters the pastillator. It then falls through holes onto a conveyor in the form of drops called pastilles. The pastilles travel along the conveyor, cool, go solid and then are put into bags. Sumptuous Skincare Ltd is always trying to improve the efficiency of its processes. Our scientists think that there may be some liquids that are better than others on the pastillator. Please can you help them to investigate? Please can you look at 3 of our ingredients and see which you think makes the best pastilles? Our customers like the pastilles to all be the same size, so you should try to make your drops the same size too if you can. We have sent you 3 ingredients, please can you design an experiment to investigate which makes the best pastilles? Let us know what you find out, and which you think is the best product for us to pastillate. We look forward to hearing from you. Melanie Williams Technical Manager Sumptuous Skincare Ltd

Working In Groups Of 3 You will need: § Samples of liquids F, G & H § Pipettes § Greaseproof paper

Let’s Investigate… § Which liquid makes the best pastilles? § Can you plan an experiment with the equipment we have provided § Discuss it in your groups of 3, and then let’s share our ideas § What did you come up with?

We Are Investigating… We could change… We will change… Our question is…. We will keep the same We could measure/observe… We will measure/observe

We Are Investigating… We could change… The height of the drop The amount of liquid The type of liquid We could measure/observe… The size of pastilles How even the pastilles are The time taken to make pastilles The shape of the pastilles We will change… The type of liquid Our question is…. We will measure/observe The shape of the pastilles Which liquid makes the best pastilles? We will keep the same The height of the drop The amount of liquid

Recording Your Results Liquid F G H Describe the shape Which drops of the drops, or look the draw a picture best?

Think About… Which liquid: F, G or H… made the best pastilles? Why did you think they were the best?

Shall We Make A Lava Lamp? The lava lamp builds on what we have learnt today about water and oil not mixing!

Thank You! We hope you enjoyed our visit! Perhaps one day you would like to be a scientist too? !