Organometallic Chemistry Applied Catalysis A REVIEW OF THE THIRD ANGLO-DUTCH SYMPOSIUM

The production of the fatty base for edible margarines by the hydrogenation of vegtable oils carried out at high temperatures and has serious disadvvantages, among them the loxicity of the nickel calalysts and a fire-hazardousfiltration stage. Here. a novel reactor and a new, active and selective, low-loaded palladium catalyst are described which allow vegetable oil hydrogenation to take place at lower temperatures producing high quality, purehydrogenated fat, free of catalyst. Under these milder conditions, the thermal decomposition of oils and fats does not form secondary products, and heavy metals from the catalyst do not enter the final product. In addition, even lower hydrogention temperatures can he used with the palladium catalyst, resulting in fat with a Iow transisomer content. The catalyst has been tested successfully in full-scale production. Using an inertial separator in a new reactor, catalyst loss has been eliminated.