Beeswax is the main material secreted by the wax glands of worker bees and used to build nests. It can play an extremely important role in the fields of skin care products and food packaging. Below I will introduce a simple purification method suitable for small-scale production of beeswax at home. method.

Step 1: Collect materials

The role of beeswax in the bee colony is to build the nest spleen and cover the nest (worker bees will use it after the honey is fully brewed and mature and the larvae pupate) Beeswax covers the hive). In addition, the royal platform built by the bee colony is also made of beeswax. Therefore, when collecting honey, you can collect old honeycombs that have been used for many years, excess spleens built by bees, and cut wax covers. Up to refine beeswax.

Step 2: Add water to melt

The melting point of beeswax is very low (about 60-67℃) and the density is slightly smaller than water (about 0.95-0.96 g/cubic centimeter). Therefore, beeswax can be refined based on these two characteristics. The specific method is to first put all the materials for refining beeswax into a pot, then add about 3 to 4 times the amount of water and heat it. At this time, the materials will slowly melt in the water. After everything is melted, the bee corpses, larvae cocoons and other impurities floating on the water can be removed first.

The third step: filter and remove impurities

After the materials for refining beeswax are completely melted, you can filter (note that it must be filtered while it is hot, otherwise the beeswax will gradually solidify), the simplest The best method is to use gauze or other cloth to filter. The specific operation method is to cover the container of wax liquid with gauze, and then pour the wax liquid into the container. The filtrate will flow through the gauze into the container, while the impurities will remain. Leave it on the gauze and filter the wax liquid several times to ensure the purity of the beeswax.

Step 4: Obtain beeswax

After the wax liquid is filtered, stop heating and let it cool by itself. As the temperature decreases, the beeswax gradually solidifies and floats on the water (the density of beeswax Smaller than water), what is obtained at this time is yellow wax (yellow wax contains carotenoids or other pigments and is yellow or yellow-brown, hence the name). Generally, the beeswax purification operation is basically over at this step, but if there is For special needs, yellow wax can be refined and decolorized to obtain white wax (pure beeswax is white).