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The electrochemical hydrogenation of edible oils in a solid polymer electrolyte reactor. II. Hydrogenation selectivity studies
Author(s) -
An Weidong,
Hong Jin Ki,
Pintauro P. N.,
Warner Kathleen,
Neff William
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of the american oil chemists' society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.512
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1558-9331
pISSN - 0003-021X
DOI - 10.1007/s11746-999-0221-1
Subject(s) - stearic acid , soybean oil , chemistry , electrolyte , linolenate , iodine value , cathode , electrochemistry , selectivity , catalysis , nuclear chemistry , organic chemistry , fatty acid , electrode , food science
Soybean oil has been hydrogenated electrochemically in a solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) reactor at 60°C and 1 atm pressure. These experiments focused on identifying cathode designs and reactor operation conditions that improved fatty acid hydrogenation selectivities. Increasing oil mass transfer into and out of the Pd‐black cathode catalyst layer (by increasing the porosity of the cathode carbon paper/cloth backing material, increasing the oil feed flow rate, and inserting a turbulence promoter into the oil feed flow channel) decreased the concentrations of stearic acid and linolenic acid in oil products [for example, an iodine value (IV) 98 oil contained 12.2% C 18:0 and 2.3% C 18:3 ]. When a second metal (Ni, Cd, Zn, Pb, Cr, Fe, Ag, Cu, or Co) was electrodeposited on a Pd‐black powder cathode, substantial increases in the linolenate, linoleate, and oleate selectivities were observed. For example, a Pd/Co cathode was used to synthesize an IV 113 soybean oil with 5.3% stearic acid and 2.3% linolenic acid. The trans isomer content of soybean oil products was in the range of 6–9.5% (corresponding to specific isomerization indices of 0.15–0.40, depending on the product IV) and did not increase significantly for high fatty acid hydrogenation selectivity conditions.