Antifoam and Defoamer

Foam can be a major issue in industry and products to overcome this are used across the wide spectrum of industries ranging from paper pulp processing, paints and water treatment to name a few. Surfactants that generate foam are added to a wide range of applications for various reasons but in some applications foam generation can cause issues. Also in some application such as sugar beet and pulp processing,  foam is generated during processing. The addition of an additive to supress generation of foam levels is therefore required and such foam control agents are known as either antifoams or defoamers.

​

Both antifoam or defoamer are the same in many respects but the term antifoam suggests the prevention of generation of foam and a defoamer operates by causing the collapse of the foam that has already been generated.