Catalytic hydrogenation (Sabatier process)
Hidrogenación catalítica (proceso Sabatier)
- Date
- c. 1897-1901 · confidence medium
- Place
- Toulouse, France
- Credited to
- Paul Sabatier and Jean-Baptiste Senderens
- Field
- Matter & energy
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
At the University of Toulouse, Sabatier and Senderens discover that finely divided nickel catalyses the addition of hydrogen to unsaturated organic compounds, laying the foundations of industrial catalytic hydrogenation.
German chemist Wilhelm Normann separately patented the industrial hydrogenation of liquid oils in 1902-1903, in parallel with Sabatier's academic work.
What it led to
- Industry of hydrogenated vegetable fats and oils
- Modern catalytic petrochemistry
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Sabatier (1912)