Nickel‐catalyzed hydrogenation of soybean oil: I. Kinetic, equilibrium and mass transfer determinations

Abstract

AbstractThe kinetic and equilibrium constants were determined for the hydrogenation of soybean oil on a commercial nickel catalyst in a 300‐ml Parr batch reactor. These constants were used to calculate the hydrogen gas absorption coefficients by coupling mass transfer with reaction rate based on a Langmuir Hinshelwood model. The activation energy for the rate‐determining step was 23 kcal/g mol whereas the adsorption energy for hydrogen was −12.5 kcal/g mol. The gas absorption coefficients varied between 0.3 to 0.7 min−1 as the temperature ranged between 140–180 C.