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

植物油必须通过加氢、酯化或分馏等方法进行改性，以达到在各种食品中使用所需的技术性能和氧化稳定性。催化氢化涉及一些天然存在的顺式双键异构化，形成反式脂肪酸（TFA），如对健康有害的elaidi酸，而动物瘤胃中的氢化则产生有益和治疗的反式脂肪酸，如共轭亚油酸（CLA）。即将出台的TFA标签法规引起了食品行业和油脂供应商的高度关注。大部分植物油的改性只能通过氢化来经济地硬化。一个有潜力满足即将到来的反式脂肪酸标签法规要求的策略是通过应用催化剂和材料科学的最新发展来设计具有控制氢化反应最终产物能力的催化剂，从而重新审视传统的氢化过程。这将主要涉及在纳米结构材料上开发双金属催化剂作为支撑，以引导部分反式异构化形成CLA，从而最小化不良反式和最大化良好反式酸，并产生可接受的饱和脂肪酸。对这一过程的进一步改进将使有害转化物减少到可以忽略不计的水平。具体而言，该研究将涉及纳米结构材料负载型新型催化剂的开发，葵花籽油加氢/异构化反应和催化剂稳定性的研究，以及新型催化剂对具有重要经济意义的菜籽油加氢/异构化反应的性能评价。该项目将为饼干勒克莱尔有限公司提供更健康的食品和提高其盈利能力，并为加拿大油菜籽和种植者、食用油加工业以及整个农业食品企业带来重大利益。

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.