Process for the selective hydrogenation of triglyceride oils with a metallic catalyst in the presence of a diamine
AssigneeLever Brothers Company
InventorJan Kuiper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Unsaturated fatty acid derivatives which, besides fatty acids with two double bonds, contain fatty acids with more than two double bonds, are hydrogenated in the presence of a palladium, platinum or rhodium catalyst which has been treated with ethylenediamine or a homologue and/or a derivative thereof and at a temperature of -20.degree. to 100.degree. C. The hydrogenation progresses very selectively while very little isomerization to trans-fatty acids occurs. For example, in the hydrogenation of soya bean oil to a linolenic acid content of 2%, the linoleic acid content only decreases to 45-52%. Under identical conditions an untreated catalyst leads to a linoleic acid content of about 35%.
Claims19
A process for hydrogenating polyunsaturated fatty acids comprising:
- treating a metal selected from the group consisting of paladium, platinum, rhodium and mixtures thereof with ethylenediamine or a homolog or derivative thereof at a molar ratio of nitrogen atoms to said metal of between 100:1 and 5000:1;
- and
- contacting said polyunsaturated fatty acids with a catalytically effective amount of said metal at a temperature of -20.degree. to 100.degree. C.;
- wherein said process is capable of producing a yield of linoleic acid higher than about 40% and a yield of trans isomers less than about 10% when soya oil containing about 55% linoleic acid and 7% linoleic acid is hydrogenated to a yield of linolenic acid of less than 2%.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.