Chemical reactions involved in the catalytic hydrogenation of oils. I. Characteristics of the volatile by‐products

The gas chromatogram of the isolated volatile by‐products I, which were produced during catalytic hydrogenation of soybean oil is quite different from that of the isolated volatile byproducts II, which were produced by a duplicate sample of the same oil subjected to the same conditions of hydrogenation with no nickel catalyst. Many of the peaks on these two gas chromatograms had different retention times. Furthermore, catalytic hydrogenation of I did not alter its gas chromatogram to equal that of II. The side reactions which may take place when an oil is treated under hydrogenation conditions are, therefore, affected by the presence of nickel catalys.