Even carbon number paraffin composition and method of manufacturing same

A method comprising:

• feeding naturally occurring fatty acids and esters to a reactor containing a gas phase and a catalyst in a slurry phase, where the catalyst comprises nickel, molybdenum, cobalt, tungsten, or a combination of any two or more thereof;
• at least partially hydrogenating/hydrogenolyzing the naturally occurring fatty acids and esters in the reactor;
• withdrawing a gas stream from the reactor and at least partially condensing the gas stream;
• separating the at least partially condensed gas stream into a second gas stream, a liquid water stream, and a liquid hydrocarbon stream;
• and
• processing the liquid hydrocarbon stream to recover at least a portion of even carbon numbered paraffins from the liquid hydrocarbon stream to produce a phase change material;
• wherein
• the reactor contains the catalyst in an amount of 1% to 30% based on dry bulk catalyst volume per total slurry volume;
• the reactor is controlled to be within 315° C. to 343° C. and within 200 psig to about 2,000 psig;
• the liquid hydrocarbon stream comprises at least 80 wt % even carbon number paraffins selected from the C12-C24 range;
• and
• the processing comprises distilling the liquid hydrocarbon stream.