Nanostructured Electrocatalysts for Triglyceride Hydrogenation.

Triglycerides;Electrochemical Hydrogenation;Carbides;Trans Fats;Chemical Engineering;Engineering;Chemical Engineering

Lausche, Adam C.Schwank, Johannes W. ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Triglycerides;    Electrochemical Hydrogenation;    Carbides;    Trans Fats;    Chemical Engineering;    Engineering;    Chemical Engineering;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/89668/lausche_1.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

An electrochemical process for the reduction of organic compounds could have anumber of advantages over thermochemical reduction, including enhanced separationbetween reactants and products, lower operating temperatures and pressures, andimproved mass transfer of reactants to and from catalyst surfaces. This researchinvestigated the use of noble metal, base metal, transition metal carbide, and carbide-supportedmetal catalysts for the electrochemical hydrogenation of triglycerides. Wereport that many of these catalysts, including W2C-supported Pd catalysts, had highrates and/or selectivities for the hydrogenation reaction.Low activities for certain catalysts were hypothesized to be related to lack of stabilityin the electrochemical hydrogenation reactor. The solid polymer electrolyte(SPE) used in this study is known to be strongly acidic, which can create a corrosiveenvironment under certain applied potentials. Two techniques, thermogravimetricanalysis of the post-reaction membrane electrode assemblies and chronoamperometryin a model SPE cell, were used to characterize catalyst stabilities. It was concludedthat the low activities of these base metal and carbide catalysts for triglyceride hydrogenationwere due to their incompatibility with the SPE.This study is among the first to investigate the nature of the hydrogenation mechanismis the context of the SPE reactor. By varying the applied voltage across theSPE reactor, it was found that catalytic activities varied with potential. Linear sweepvoltammetry was used with the various catalysts in a model SPE cell, which showedthat this dependence was due to the electrochemical nature of the hydrogenationrate determining step. Variations in the hydrogenation activities of the different catalysts werefound to correlate with their activities for the hydrogen evolution reaction, suggestingthat similar sites are involved in each reaction.With this understanding of the triglyceride hydrogenation mechanism, catalystformulations could be modified to improve the activities and selectivities for this andrelated reactions. A preliminary economic analysis indicated that the electrochemicalhydrogenation of triglycerides may be economically viable in comparison to thethermochemical process currently used in industry.