Vegetable Oil Hydrogenation over Pt Monolithic and Powder Catalysts: Experimental and Modeling Study

Abstract

A complete kinetic study was performed for the hydrogenation of vegetable oil using a powder and a monolithic Pt catalyst. The experimental studies were carried out at a wide interval of H2 pressure, temperature, and catalyst loading using Pt/γ-Al2O3 powder catalyst in a slurry reactor and Pt/Al2O3/Al-structured catalyst in a monolithic stirrer reactor. The mathematical model for the reactors includes the hydrogenation and isomerization reactions, the external gas-liquid and liquid-solid mass transfer as well as the internal mass transfer. Four kinetic models were evaluated for both catalysts. The best fit of the experimental data was obtained by adopting a Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic model for the liquid reactant and a dissociative adsorption and zero-order reaction for H2.