Hardening of unsaturated fats, fatty acids or fatty acid esters
AssigneeDegussa AG
InventorsThomas Tacke, Stefan Wieland, Peter Panster, Martin Bankmann, Reinhold Brand, Hendrik Magerlein
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Abstract
A process is disclosed for continuously hydrogenating unsaturated fats, fatty acids or fatty acid esters on a shaped catalyst in a solid bed. The reactants flow over the catalyst in the presence of a medium or solvent mixture in supercritical conditions. This leads to considerably improved activity and selectivity of the hydrogenation reaction compared with conventional trickle bed hydrogenation processes.
Claims10
A method for the continuous hydrogenation of a fat, fatty acid or fatty acid ester comprising;
- A) adding a fat, fatty acid, fatty acid ester or mixture thereof, with the hydrogen required for the hydrogenation in a supercritical solvent medium,
- B) hydrogenating said fat, fatty acid, fatty acid ester, or mixture thereof on a catalyst therefor to obtain a reaction product and,
- C) separating the reaction product from said supercritical solvent medium by the expansion of said supercritical solvent medium.
A method for controlling the distribution of cis and trans isomers of a fat, fatty acid or fatty acid ester during hydrogenation comprising;
- A) adding a fat, fatty acid, fatty acid ester or mixture thereof, with the hydrogen required for the hydrogenation in a supercritical solvent medium,
- B) hydrogenating said fat, fatty acid, fatty acid ester, or mixture thereof on a catalyst therefor to obtain a reaction product with a high cis/trans isomer ratio and,
- C) separating the reaction product from said supercritical solvent medium by the expansion of said supercritical solvent medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.