Patent ID: 8197559

Claim:
Process for the continuous hydrogenation of triglyceride containing raw materials like vegetable oils in a fixed bed reactor system having several catalyst beds comprising hydrogenation catalyst, which beds are arranged in series, wherein the raw material feed, hydrogen containing gas and diluting agent are passed together through the catalyst beds of the reactor system at hydrogenation conditions, characterized in that a) the raw material feed stream is divided into a number of different partial streams F 1 to F n identical to the number of catalyst beds n in the reactor system at a temperature of less than 80° C., the stream of hydrogen containing gas is also divided into the same number of different partial streams H 1 to H n at a temperature of less than 110° C., then partial raw material feed stream F 1 and partial stream of hydrogen containing gas H 1 are passed to the first catalyst bed, partial raw material feed stream F 2 and partial stream of hydrogen containing gas H 2 are passed to the second catalyst bed and so on, wherein n is equal to or greater than 2, each partial stream of raw material feed following in downstream direction being that much larger than the preceding one that the weight ratio of diluting agent to raw material feed is essentially the same at the entrance of all catalyst beds and does not exceed 4:1, the term diluting agent comprising the hydrogenation product formed in every catalyst bed as well as added diluting agent as defined below in b), b) the temperature at the reactor inlet at the first catalyst bed (after a start-up phase) is adjusted with added diluting agent, which is a specific fraction of the hydrogenation product obtained by the present process, which is recovered from the reactor exit product mixture by separation in two steps without controlled pressure reduction at 145 to 280° C. and 15 to 60° C., c) diluting agent is only added to the streams of raw material feed F 1 and hydrogen containing gas H 1 entering at the reactor inlet and passing through the first catalyst bed, and d) hydrogen is used in excess of the theoretical hydrogen consumption.