Supercritical hydrogenation processes: Experimental results on the fluid phase behavior of binary and ternary mixtures of hydrogen, propane and tripalmitin

The problems of low reaction rate and cis–trans isomerization encountered in the gas–liquid catalyzed hydrogenation of vegetable oils can be overcome by using a supercritical fluid to bring the reactive mixture into a homogeneous phase. For that purpose, experimental phase equilibrium data on mixtures of high molecular weight substrates with hydrogen and a supercritical fluid are needed in order to evaluate optimum process conditions. In this work vapor–liquid and liquid–liquid equilibria in mixtures of hydrogen+propane+tripalmitin have been measured. A temperature region between 323 and 453 K, and pressures up to 15 MPa were covered.