Method of producing granular surfactants

A process for the production of washing- and cleaning-active surfactant granules, wherein said granules are prepared from a composition consisting of 40 to 70% by weight of surfactant and reciprocally 60-30% by weight of a non-surface-active liquid component, and having a liquid to paste-like form under normal pressure at temperatures of 20.degree. to 40.degree. C., said composition being introduced to a fluidized bed and granulated and, at the same time, totally or partially freed from the non-surface-active liquid component, optionally with addition of:

• (a) 0.5 to 10% by weight, based on the surfactant composition, of mono- or polyhydric alcohols, (b) 0.001 to 15% by weight, based on the surfactant composition, of dyes or foam inhibitors, and (c) 10 to 50% by weight, based on the sum total of surfactant composition and solid, of solid additives selected from the group consisting of alkali metal carbonates, alkali metal sulfates, zeolite, salts of citric acid, peroxy bleaches, bleach activators, polyethylene glycols having a relative molecular weight in the range from 4000 to 20,000 and ethoxylated fatty alcohols containing 20 to 80 ethylene oxide groups to the surfactant composition, and wherein the granules are discharged from the fluidized bed via a grading step by a countercurrent air-stream which is adjusted so that only particles smaller than 50 .mu.m in size are removed from the granules, said granules having an apparent density above 500 g/l.