Hydrogenation in the context of "Dehydrogenation"

Methanol (also called methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical compound and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the chemical formula CH₃OH (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is a light, volatile, colorless and flammable liquid with a distinctive alcoholic odor similar to that of ethanol (potable alcohol), but is more acutely toxic than the latter.Methanol acquired the name wood alcohol because it was once produced through destructive distillation of wood. Today, methanol is mainly produced industrially by hydrogenation of carbon monoxide.

Methanol consists of a methyl group linked to a polar hydroxyl group. With more than 20 million tons produced annually, it is used as a precursor to other commodity chemicals, including formaldehyde, acetic acid, methyl tert-butyl ether, methyl benzoate, anisole, peroxyacids, as well as a host of more specialized chemicals.

Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats.

The roots of biodiesel as a fuel source can be traced back to when J. Patrick and E. Duffy first conducted transesterification of vegetable oil in 1853, predating Rudolf Diesel's development of the diesel engine. Diesel's engine, initially designed for mineral oil, successfully ran on peanut oil at the 1900 Paris Exposition. This landmark event highlighted the potential of vegetable oils as an alternative fuel source. The interest in using vegetable oils as fuels resurfaced periodically, particularly during resource-constrained periods such as World War II. However, challenges such as high viscosity and resultant engine deposits were significant hurdles. The modern form of biodiesel emerged in the 1930s, when a method was found for transforming vegetable oils for fuel use, laying the groundwork for contemporary biodiesel production.

Heterogeneous catalysis is catalysis where the phase of catalysts differs from that of the reagents or products. The process contrasts with homogeneous catalysis where the reagents, products and catalyst exist in the same phase. Phase distinguishes between not only solid, liquid, and gas components, but also immiscible mixtures (e.g., oil and water), or anywhere an interface is present.

Heterogeneous catalysis typically involves solid phase catalysts and gas phase reactants. In this case, there is a cycle of molecular adsorption, reaction, and desorption occurring at the catalyst surface. Thermodynamics, mass transfer, and heat transfer influence the rate (kinetics) of reaction.

A saturated compound is a chemical compound (or ion) that resists addition reactions, such as hydrogenation, oxidative addition, and the binding of a Lewis base. The term is used in many contexts and classes of chemical compounds. Overall, saturated compounds are less reactive than unsaturated compounds. Saturation is derived from the Latin word saturare, meaning 'to fill'. An unsaturated compound is also a chemical compound (or ion) that attracts reduction reactions, such as dehydrogenation and oxidative reduction.

An ultra-processed food (UPF) is a grouping of processed food characterized by relatively involved methods of production. There is no simple definition of UPF, but they are generally understood to be an industrial creation derived from natural food or synthesized from other organic compounds. The resulting products are designed to be highly profitable, convenient, and hyperpalatable, often through food additives such as preservatives, colourings, and flavourings. UPFs have often undergone processes such as moulding/extruding, hydrogenation, or frying.

Ultra-processed foods first became ubiquitous in the 1980s, though the term "ultra-processed food" gained prominence from a 2009 paper by Brazilian researchers as part of the Nova classification system. In the Nova system, UPFs include most bread and other mass-produced baked goods, frozen pizza, instant noodles, flavored yogurt, fruit and milk drinks, diet products, baby food, and most of what is considered junk food. The Nova definition considers ingredients, processing, and how products are marketed; nutritional content is not evaluated. As of 2024, research into the effects of UPFs is rapidly evolving.

Sugar alcohols (also called polyhydric alcohols, polyalcohols, alditols or glycitols) are organic compounds, typically derived from sugars, containing one hydroxyl group (−OH) attached to each carbon atom. They are white, water-soluble solids that can occur naturally or be produced industrially by hydrogenating sugars. Since they contain multiple (−OH) groups, they are classified as polyols.

Sugar alcohols are used widely in the food industry as thickeners and sweeteners. In commercial foodstuffs, sugar alcohols are commonly used in place of table sugar (sucrose), often in combination with high-intensity artificial sweeteners, in order to offset their low sweetness. Xylitol and sorbitol are popular sugar alcohols in commercial foods.

Carbon-neutral fuel is fuel which produces no net-greenhouse gas emissions or carbon footprint. In practice, this usually means fuels that are made using carbon dioxide (CO₂) as a feedstock. Proposed carbon-neutral fuels can broadly be grouped into synthetic fuels, which are made by chemically hydrogenating carbon dioxide, and biofuels, which are produced using natural CO₂-consuming processes like photosynthesis.

The carbon dioxide used to make synthetic fuels may be directly captured from the air, recycled from power plant flue exhaust gas or derived from carbonic acid in seawater. Common examples of synthetic fuels include ammonia and methane, although more complex hydrocarbons such as gasoline and jet fuel have also been successfully synthesized artificially. In addition to being carbon neutral, such renewable fuels can alleviate the costs and dependency issues of imported fossil fuels without requiring either electrification of the vehicle fleet or conversion to hydrogen or other fuels, enabling continued compatible and affordable vehicles. In order to be truly carbon-neutral, any energy required for the process must be itself be carbon-neutral or emissions-free, like renewable energy or nuclear energy.

Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is a biofuel made by the hydrocracking and hydrogenation of vegetable oil. Hydrocracking breaks big molecules into smaller ones using hydrogen while hydrogenation eliminates double bonds by adding hydrogen to the molecules. These methods can be used to create substitutes for gasoline, diesel, propane, kerosene and other chemical feedstock. Diesel fuel produced from these sources is sometimes referred to as green diesel or renewable diesel.

Diesel fuel created by hydrotreating is distinct from the biodiesel made through esterification.

Cortisone is a pregnene (21-carbon) steroid hormone. It is a naturally occurring corticosteroid metabolite that is also used as a pharmaceutical prodrug. Cortisol is converted by the action of the enzyme corticosteroid 11-beta-dehydrogenase isozyme 2 into the inactive metabolite cortisone, particularly in the kidneys. This is done by oxidizing the alcohol group at carbon 11 (in the six-membered ring fused to the five-membered ring). Cortisone is converted back to the active steroid cortisol by stereospecific hydrogenation at carbon 11 by the enzyme 11β-Hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1, particularly in the liver.

The term "cortisone" is frequently misused to mean either any corticosteroid or hydrocortisone, which is in fact cortisol. Many who speak of receiving a "cortisone shot" or taking "cortisone" are more likely receiving hydrocortisone or one of many other, much more potent synthetic corticosteroids.

Shale oil extraction is an industrial process for unconventional oil production. This process converts kerogen in oil shale into shale oil by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. The resultant shale oil is used as fuel oil or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing sulfur and nitrogen impurities.

Shale oil extraction is usually performed above ground (ex situ processing) by mining the oil shale and then treating it in processing facilities. Other modern technologies perform the processing underground (on-site or in situ processing) by applying heat and extracting the oil via oil wells.

Shale oil is an unconventional oil produced from oil shale rock fragments by pyrolysis, hydrogenation, or thermal dissolution. These processes convert the organic matter within the rock (kerogen) into synthetic oil and gas. The resulting oil can be used immediately as a fuel or upgraded to meet refinery feedstock specifications by adding hydrogen and removing impurities such as sulfur and nitrogen. The refined products can be used for the same purposes as those derived from crude oil.

The term "shale oil" is also used for crude oil produced from shales of other unconventional, very low permeability formations. However, to reduce the risk of confusion of shale oil produced from oil shale with crude oil in oil-bearing shales, the term "tight oil" is preferred for the latter. The International Energy Agency recommends to use the term "light tight oil" and World Energy Resources 2013 report by the World Energy Council uses the term "tight oil" for crude oil in oil-bearing shales.

The Birch reduction or Metal-Ammonia reduction is an organic reaction that is used to convert arenes to 1,4-cyclohexadienes. The reaction is named after the Australian chemist Arthur Birch and involves the organic reduction of aromatic rings in an amine solvent (traditionally liquid ammonia) with an alkali metal (traditionally sodium) and a proton source (traditionally an alcohol). Unlike catalytic hydrogenation, Birch reduction does not reduce the aromatic ring all the way to a cyclohexane.

Another example is the reduction of naphthalene in ammonia and diethyl ether:

Gonane (cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene) is a chemical compound with formula C
₁₇H
₂₈, whose structure consists of four hydrocarbon rings fused together: three cyclohexane units and one cyclopentane. It can also be viewed as the result of fusing a cyclopentane molecule with a fully hydrogenated molecule of phenanthrene, hence the more descriptive name "perhydrocyclopenta[a]phenanthrene". The non-systematic version of the above name is "cyclopentanoperhydrophenanthrene".

It has no double bonds, that is, it is completely saturated and is considered the main structure of steroids, often referred to as the steroid nucleus. There are many forms of gonane, but only a few occur naturally in living organisms. Some common forms include 5α-gonane and 5β-gonane. Estrane, androstane, and pregnane are derivatives of gonane with additional methyl or ethyl groups attached to certain carbon positions. The term gonane is also used to describe a group of progestins that are similar to levonorgestrel but have a slightly different structure than other hormones like estranes.

In organic chemistry, carbonyl reduction is the conversion of any carbonyl group, usually to an alcohol. It is a common transformation that is practiced in many ways. Ketones, aldehydes, carboxylic acids, esters, amides, and acid halides - some of the most pervasive functional groups, -comprise carbonyl compounds. Carboxylic acids, esters, and acid halides can be reduced to either aldehydes or a step further to primary alcohols, depending on the strength of the reducing agent. Aldehydes and ketones can be reduced respectively to primary and secondary alcohols. In deoxygenation, the alcohol group can be further reduced and removed altogether by replacement with hydrogen.

Two broad strategies exist for carbonyl reduction. One method, which is favored in industry, uses hydrogen as the reductant. This approach is called hydrogenation and requires metal catalysts. The other broad approach employs stoichiometric reagents that deliver H and H separately. This article focuses on the use of these reagents. Prominent among these reagents are the alkali metal salts of borohydrides and aluminium hydrides.