What is hydrogenation? What is its industrial application?

Hydrogenation is the process of the addition of hydrogen to an unsaturated compound to obtain saturated compounds in the presence of catalysts such as palladium and nickel. For example, unsaturated hydrocarbons (alkene or alkyne) are reacted with hydrogen in the presence of palladium and nickel catalyst to form saturated hydrocarbons. So, hydrogenation is a reduction reaction which results in an addition of hydrogen (usually as H 2 ). Application: In industry, hydrogenation reaction is used for preparing vegetable ghee from vegetable oils. Most vegetable oils are derived from polyunsaturated fatty acids. So, the hydrogenation of vegetable oils in presence of a catalyst gives ghee.

Hydrocarbons are organic compounds consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. They are the chief components of petroleum and natural gas. Some examples of hydrocarbons are: methane CH 4 , pentane C 5 H 12 , ethene C 2 H 4 , etc.