Boiling heat transfer from horizontal stainless steel tubes, submerged in subcooled surfactant solutions of various concentrations, was studied experimentally. The kinetic of boiling (bubble nucleation, growth and departure) was investigated by high-speed video recording in combination with Infrared Thermography. The specific features of boiling of surfactant solutions were revealed. It was found that the subcooled nucleate boiling of surfactant could not be described by a single curve, in contrast to water. A boiling hysteresis was found for degraded solutions. This phenomenon may be related to formation of a surfactant monolayer, which results in damping of an interfacial motion. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.