Hydrogenation Plants

Everyone know oils and fans as an ingredient of daily food or perhaps as a raw material for soap making. But only a few people know them as a group of organic compounds called 'Fatty Acids'. Fatty Acids, in their turn are formed by union of several carbon atoms in a straight chain with hydrogen and oxygen atoms. A single chain may contain anywhere from 6 to 24 carbon atoms, but the common one are 12,14,16,18 and 20 carbon chains. A fatty acid is said to be saturated when all the carbon atoms are combined with hydrogen is incomplete and there is possibility of further addition of hydrogen. Higher the unsaturation lower is the melting point of fatty acid. as such, many oils containing un saturation remains as liquids at normal temperatures. those which contain lesser amounts of unsaturated acids exits as solid or semi solid fats at normal temperatures. A liquid oil can be converted to a required degree of hardness by reducing its un saturation by controlled reaction with hydrogen.
Vanaspati is a product obtained by such controlled hydrogenation of edible liquid oils (called 'soft oils' in the industry), so that its hardness, consistency and grainy appearance resemble natural ghee. The addition of hydrogen to an oil occurs when the hydrogen gas is brought into contact with the oil at a higher temperature in the presence of metallic Nickel Catalyst prepared under controlled conditions. In practice, however the process is not as simple. Several Steps are involved in the process as described in succeeding paragraphs