Experimentally Determined Fluid Phase Equilibria for Supercritical Hydrogenation Processes

L.J. ROVETTO; S.B. BOTTINI; C.J. PETERS; E.A. BRIGNOLE

Santa Fe

Congreso; 1st Mercosur Congress on Chemical Engineering; 3rd Mercosur Congress on Process Systems; 2001

The problems of low reaction rate and cis-trans isomerization encountered in the gas-liquid catalyzed hydrogenation of vegetable oils can be overcome by using a supercritical fluid to bring the reactive mixture into a homogeneous phase. For that purpose, experimental phase equilibrium data on mixtures of high molecular weight substrates with hydrogen and a supercritical fluid are needed in order to evaluate optimum process conditions. In this work vapor-liquid and liquid-liquid equilibria in mixtures of hydrogen + propane + tripalmitin have been measured. A temperature region between 323K and 453K, and pressures up to 15 MPa was covered