Hydrogenation of vegetable oils minimizing harmful trans acids and enhancing beneficial conjugated linoleic acids using a novel generation of supported catalysts

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Vegetable oils must be modified by hydrogenation, interesterification or fractionation to achieve the desired technical properties and oxidative stability for use in various food products. While catalytic hydrogenation involves isomerization of some of the naturally occurring cis double bonds to form trans fatty acids (TFA) such as elaidic acid which are detrimental to health, hydrogenation in the rumen of animals produces trans fatty acids such as conjugated linoleic acids (CLA) which are beneficial and therapeutic. The impending labeling regulation on TFA is preoccupying the attention of the food industry and fats and oils suppliers. Modification of bulk of the vegetable oils can only be hardened economically through hydrogenation. A strategy that holds potential to meet the requirements of the impending labeling regulation on trans fatty acids is to revisit the conventional hydrogenation process by applying recent developments in catalysts and material science to design catalysts with capabilities to control the end products of hydrogenation reaction. This would involve primarily the development of bimetallic catalysts on nanostructured materials as supports in order to direct part of the trans isomerization towards the formation of CLA, leading to minimization of bad trans and maximization of good trans acids, with acceptable saturated fatty acid production. Further refinements to the process would enable the reduction of bad trans to negligible levels. Specifically, the research would involve the development of novel catalysts supported on nanostructured materials, studies on hydrogenation/isomerization reactions and catalyst stability using sunflower oil, and evaluation of the performance of the novel catalyst for hydrogenation/ isomerization of the economically important canola oil. The benefits that would accrue from this project are highly significant to Biscuit-Leclerc Ltd for providing healthier foods and improving its profitability and to the Canadian canola and growers, the edible oil processing industry as well as Agri-Food Business overall.