ABSTRACT
Nickel on kieselguhr is a common catalyst used in the reduced condition as a powdered nickel-bearing catalyst useful for liquid-phase hydrogenations primarily for hardening or converting vegetable oils to a soft wax, for instance, soft oleomargarine. The catalyst in reduced form is pyrophoric; that is, when exposed to air, it will immediately glow, oxidize, and become catalytically ineffective. To make it possible to use and handle it in air, it is given the following stabilization treatment. After reduction and cooling, the catalyst is transferred into an inert atmosphere in, for example, a glass bottle. Cobalt has various specific applications, usually in the hydrogenation of nitriles to amines or in other cases where an amine is a substituent group. Nickel aluminum alloy catalysts, either as powder or in lump form, frequently have characteristics that make them superior for some hydrogenations.
