Intensification of catalytic transfer hydrogenation of fatty acid methyl esters by using ultrasound

Abstract

Ultrasound was applied to intensity the catalytic transfer hydrogenation (CTH) of highly unsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) to realize the effective hydrogenation of FAMEs under mild conditions. Under the optimum reaction conditions of ultrasound-assisted CTH using La-doped nickel-boride amorphous alloy (Ni–La–B) as catalyst, sodium borohydride as hydrogen donor and water as solvent, a high conversion ratio of hydrogenation for polyunsaturated FAMEs could be easily realized at 35 °C at 120 min (ca. 78.66%). It was found that ultrasound presented a significant intensification effect on the CTH of FAMEs; different from the conventional and ultrasound approaches, by using ultrasound-assisted approach of CTH, deep hydrogenation could be avoided to a certain extent even under the high conversion ratio of hydrogenation, and the hydrogenated product with good performance was easily gained. The self-purification function of ultrasound on the catalyst played the most important positive effect on the intensification of CTH of FAMEs. Overall, the ultrasound-assisted approach played an effective process intensification on the CTH of FAMEs to produce high-quality products under mild conditions.