STUDIES ON KINETICS OF CATALYTIC ISOMERIZATION OF METHYL LINOLEATE.

Kinetics of isomerization of methyl linoleate are studied on ruthenium (5%) on carbon in the temperature range 200-270 C with different solvents. Some equilibrium experiments are also carried out with rhodium and ruthenium catalysts. The reactions taking place are isomerization, hydrogenation and polymerization. The activities and the selectivities are dependent on the nature of the solvent used. Highly protic solvents like methanol or isopropyl alcohol exhibited very high activity and selectivity for hydrogenation, whereas aprotic solvents like hexane or cyclohexane showed very high selectivities for isomerization reaction. The reaction kinetics were found to be further complicated by polymer formation at low solvent concentrations. The effects of temperature, solvent concentration, catalyst quantity and time of reaction were also investigated.