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Hydrogenation of palm oil in near‐critical and supercritical propane
Author(s) -
Macher MajBritt,
Holmqvist André
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
european journal of lipid science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.614
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1438-9312
pISSN - 1438-7697
DOI - 10.1002/1438-9312(200102)103:2<81::aid-ejlt81>3.0.co;2-n
Subject(s) - supercritical fluid , residence time (fluid dynamics) , catalysis , propane , hydrogen , chemistry , iodine value , raw material , coke , palm oil , analytical chemistry (journal) , organic chemistry , geotechnical engineering , food science , engineering
Palm oil was hydrogenated in a single‐phase mixture with propane and hydrogen. This was done in a small (0.5 ml), continuous fixed‐bed reactor, using a 1% Pd/C catalyst. Temperature (65—135 °C), H 2 /TG ratio (4—50 mol/mol) and residence time (0.2—2.0 s) were varied systematically to assess the iodine value (IV) as a function of these three variables. The substrate concentration was 1 wt‐%. The IV was dependent mainly on temperature and residence time. At 120 °C and a residence time of 2.0 s, full hydrogenation was achieved. The trends observed indicate that this is possible even at lower temperatures, if the residence time is increased further. Unexpectedly, the hydrogen concentration (i.e. the H 2 /TG ratio) was of minor importance, which can be a sign of either H 2 ‐saturation of the catalyst or a phase‐split of the reaction mixture with resulting mass transport limitations for the hydrogen. Unfortunately, the catalyst showed strong signs of deactivation very early in the experiments, possibly due to impurities in the feedstock and/or to coke formation.