Catalyst activation by cold plasma technology and its effect on isomerization of safflower seed oil

Abstract

High voltage atmospheric cold plasma (HVACP) is a novel catalyst modification technology. In this study, a ruthenium/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (Ru/MWCNTs) catalyst was activated by HVACP instead of the thermal reduction method. The results showed that HVACP activation under the conditions of 180 s discharge time, 150 W discharge power, and 2.5 cm electrode spacing at 25 °C could effectively decrease the activation temperature and time. At this time, the Ru dispersion was 20.1% and the conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) yield was 43.0%. Catalyst characterization proved that the HVACP-treated catalyst did not aggregate and had a good activation effect. The catalyst was applied to the isomerization reaction of safflower seed oil to obtain CLA-rich safflower seed oil. The total CLA content was 43.02%, the trans-oleic acid content was 1.34%, the iodine value (IV) was 133.50 gI2/100 g, and after reusing five times, the relative activity of the catalyst remained at 77%, which provided the conditions for the preparation of functional oil.