ARS | Publication request: THE EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON SOYBEAN OIL HYDROGENATION KINETICS

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 7, 1999
Publication Date: October 19, 2002
Citation: HOLSER, R.A., LIST, G.R., KING, J.W., HOLLIDAY, R.L., NEFF, W.E. THE EFFECT OF PRESSURE ON SOYBEAN OIL HYDROGENATION KINETICS. JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL AND FOOD CHEMISTRY. 50:7111-7113. 2002.

Interpretive Summary: Edible oils, such as soybean oil, are prepared for use in margarine and shortening by a process called hydrogenation which changes the way margarine melts and also changes the kind of fats in the oil. We have developed a mathematical method to predict or control how much of the different kinds of fat are incorporated into the oil by changing the pressure. This method may be used to make a healthier margarine with good melting properties, benefitting both industry and the consumer because of the development of a more desirable product.

Technical Abstract: Refined soybean oil was partially hydrogenated over a range of system conditions to investigate the effect of pressure on triglyceride conversions and to evaluate the feasibility of using pressure to influence the resulting product distributions. Data were interpreted by a first order irreversible kinetic model with rate constants evaluated at 50, 100, and 500 psig. These results were used to express the pressure dependence of selected rate constants and to predict product distributions for varying pressure profiles.