Can soap be made from coconut oil and NaOH containing wood chips?

Question

If so, what is the type of reaction that takes place that turns fat into soap? What type of soap is produced? And what do the wood chips do?

Answer 1

Always a good place to start looking up anything:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap#Handmade_soap
and for the saponification specifically (as discussed below): http://chemistry.about.com/library/weekly/blsapon.htm

Coconut oil can be used, as can literally just about any type of oil. If you use coconut oil you will have coconut oil soap. People have used olive oil and every other type of oil they can get their hands on.

Why NaOH-containing wood chips? I think you're misunderstanding the process. The NaOH "saponifies" the soaps: the fats are triglycerides, that is glycerin with three long hydrophobic chains hanging off (see the about.com link above). The NaOH breaks the fatty chains off the glycerin. You don't need wood chips, but you do need NaOH. Historically the way people got NaOH was by passing water through ash. Organic matter, in addition to sugars and other things that burn away contains a lot of sodium, which after burning remains in ashes as NaOH. The wood chips do absolutely nothing, neither does the rest of the ash, it was just the easiest way to get NaOH.