A process for the catalytic hydrogenation of liquid fatty acid triglycerides for the simultaneous recovery of fatty alcohols and C3 diols

Using a process for catalytic hydrogenation of liquid fatty acid triglycerides for simultaneous production of fatty alcohols and C3-diols in the presence of gaseous hydrogen and hydrogenation catalysts at pressures from 50 to 300 bar and temperatures from 160 to 250 DEG , a yield of fatty alcohols of at least 99% of theory and of 1,2-propanediol of at least 80% of theory and a maximum paraffin content of at most 0.5% of theory is achieved by carrying out the hydrogenation reaction in a shell-and-tube reactor held under isothermal conditions by means of a cooling or heating fluid, the liquid phase being passed over catalyst packings in the individual reactor tubes as parallel current liquid phase in addition to the gaseous phase without remixing, and by selecting the volume loading of the reactor between 0.2 and 2.5 l of feedstock per l of reactor volume and hour and the surface loading of each individual reactor tube between 1.5 and 25 m per m reactor cross-section and hour and adjusting the reactor parameters temperature and pressure to the actual catalyst activity correspondingly.