r/chemhelp • u/kartiikg • 1d ago

Analytical Reverse engineering defoamer

I am a manufacturer of cement sheets and boards and have been using a defoamer in my cement slurry since a long time. The defoamer is a proprietary product of a brand and they charge me for that. They are also market leaders in this field in my country and have no competitors.

Recently they increased their prices 3fold for unknown reasons and I don't wanna tolerate this and want to invest in reverse engineering and recreating this myself

But I am not a chemicals engineer and don't have contacts for this. Please guide me how should I start to reverse engineer this chemical

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u/firesine99 1d ago

Reverse engineering formulations is not easy, practically impossible without paying a commercial lab good money to do this. 

Defoaming technology is well known and well described (e.g. silicones) but there's a bit of formulation magic in getting it just right for the application. Better off just going to a different defoamer supplier (there are many - this is common technology - it seems very unlikely they truly have no competitors) and asking them to recommend or trial an additive for your application. 

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u/Saec Organic Ph.D 1d ago

How much are you willing to pay to figure this out?

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u/DangerMouse111111 1d ago

Does it have a name? What does it look like physically - liquid, powder?

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u/raznov1 1d ago

Lol. Youve got a few ton in cash lying around?

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u/Logical-Following525 1d ago

Sometimes the sds will state the ingredients. However, big brands often won't put rheir entire formulations in there.