EFFECT OF MASS TRANSFER ON THE SELECTIVITY IN THE HYDROGENATION OF FATTY OILS

Abstract

The hydrogenation of fatty oils is a complicated heterogeneous gas-liquid reaction catalyzed by solids. It is industrially important to hydrogenate the polyunsaturated fatty acid groups in triglyceride oils in preference to the monounsaturated ones. On the basis of the reaction kinetics determined previously using a nonlinear least-squares method, a simple model describing the effect of mass transfer on the selectivity of the hydrogenation is presented for a semibatch reactor. It was found that this model can explain general rules for increasing the selectivity, and predict satisfactorily experimental results under conditions of both higher and lower degrees of agitation.