The Catalyst<br /><br />PREPARED BY Dr.Hadi Yasir Abbood<br />[email protected]<br /><br />What do microwave popcorn, biscuits, margarine spreads, and coffee creamers have in common? Aside from making you hungry, these foods are made possible thanks to hydrogenation. We may not give a lot of thought to hydrogenation, but it’s used in everything from foods and makeup to petrochemical products. One widely used catalyst that makes hydrogenation .<br />One widely used catalyst that makes hydrogenation possible is a metallic alloy called Raney® nickel. This nickle-aluminum alloy was invented to transform cottonseed oil from a liquid into a semi-solid shortening. A series of hydrogenation experiments by chemist Murray Raney in Chattanooga, Tennessee, between 1915 and 1926 for the Chattanooga Research Company led to its discovery. The discovery opened the door for hydrogenation of oils, fats, and waxes in a variety of food and industrial applications.<br />What Is Hydrogenation?<br />We commonly think of hydrogenation as a chemical process that adds texture and shelf-life to foods, but it also extends to industrial applications.<br />In the food industry, hydrogenation is used to solidify liquid fats fully or partially. In the petrochemical industry, hydrogenation transforms a class of unsaturated hydrocarbons called “alkenes” which are used to produce alcohols, plastics, lacquers, detergents, and fuels into saturated and less reactive forms known as “alkanes” (e.g., paraffins ) and cycloalkanes (e.g., cyclic hydrocarbons, or naphthenes).<br />The hydrogenation process involves hydrogen and another compound. Because hydrogen is generally unreactive with organic compounds, however, a catalyst is needed.<br /><br />