Kinetics of liquid phase hydrogenation of cottonseed oil with nickel catalysts

The hydrogenation of cottonseed oil has been carried out in a batch reactor using both unmodified and chromia modified nickel catalysts. The process variables include chromium to nickel atomic ratio (0.00–0.35), catalyst particle size (200–400 micron), temperature (120–140°C) and pressure (5–10 bar). Chromia was found to suppress the stearate formation completely, although it retarded the overall hydrogenation activity of nickel. Its optimum content in the catalyst was found to be 0.17 Cr/Ni atomic ratio; the data corresponded to 5 hr reaction time. The kinetics of the process was tested and found to follow a first order reaction with respect to linoleate and half order with respect to hydrogen. The activation energy was found to be 11.8 kcal/mole.