CATALYTIC HYDROGENATION OF FATTY OILS.

A long period of research into the fundamentals of the process for hydrogenation of edible fatty oils and of the silica-supported nickel catalysts, used in this process, is reviewed. Even though fat hydrogenation is a structure-insensitive reaction, so that catalytic activity should be proportional to nickel surface area, this fact is not easy to demonstrate. Mass transport limitation within the pore structure of the catalysts masks the fundamentally simple relations. Triglycerides are large molecules, and their diffusion can be impeded in narrow pores. In the structure of the catalysts, formation of basic nickel silicate plays an important role as structure stabilizer.