Hydrogenation: transform liquid oil into solid fat

Learn the science behind the buzzwords surrounding saturated, unsaturated, omega-3 and trans fats, and see a demonstration of hydrogenation.

[@mahejeah]

One day you'll be like, "today I made a self-sustaining fusion reactor, stopped global warming and world hunger, and then I turned myself into pure energy, and now I'll talk to you through an oscilloscope. Okay, see you next time. Bye!"

[@insightfool]

Man Ben. I can't tell you how many times I am researching a topic and wind up finding your fantasticly thorough instructional/tutorials! Thank you again.

[@insightfool]

+Applied Science The only thing I didn't see was wondering if there are chemical ways to hydrogenate.

[@AppliedScience]

+Cere Mony Thanks. I've definitely had the experience of searching for help with a project, and finding a coworker's or my own stuff. It's kind of frustrating and funny at the same time.

[@pocket83]

7:22 Look closely! You can see the hexane gas pouring out of the beaker if you look at its beak. Thanks for another top-quality video.

[@coryscamihorn1811]

I love it when carbon and palladium get intimate, really does it for me.

[@JordanV]

really likes the thicc spread

[@minutemaidification]

Down with the thiccness

[@RimstarOrg]

Excellent! Seeing it at the molecular level makes it all clear for me. Thanks!

[@eljesus788]

the hydrogenated part was cool. the explanation about that mono, poly, trans, omega fats was the clearest ive herd.

[@zoeydeu2261]

The food industry also bleaches the hydrogenated fat afterwards to give it a nicer appearance (as good as filtering may be, it doesn't completely render the transfat white). For margarines they use to add yellow coloring to mimick the look of butter

[@bdpatton2]

doesn't the bleach have obvious negative consequences?

[@Afrotechmods]

Excellent video. I really liked how you explained how the molecular structure relates to solid/liquid at different temps.

[@unperrier5998]

Well did he explain why saturated fat become liquid at higher temperature? I missed that part.

[@JodBronson]

@@unperrier5998 - *Here, the best answer in the world and EASY too... Temperature = Radiation. The higher the radiation, the higher the heat which turns into what is known as 'Electron(s)'. Through "Electrons", then come what is known as Ionic Bond. Then too many electrons, IT separates the bonds and that is how IT becomes "Liquid". Basically, "Elections" wiggles the molecules apart.

[@RealHogweed]

besides being less expensive, another advantage of saturated fatty acid is that their single bonds are much more resistant to oxidation than double bonds, so they don't go rancid as fast as unsaturated fats.

[@markbell9742]

Hi Ben: Great demonstration and explanation. I liked your low pressure compensator/monitor glove setup; that's a great way to be able to maintain and monitor a slight positive pressure on an experiment and not to pop stoppers, tubing, etc. off your line. For a setup requiring a bit more purity you could exchange the glove for a thin viton diaphragm or better a small stainless steel bellows. In addition to our evolutionary preference for saturation it also gives produces, as you said a spreadable, consistency and the best example I can think of is peanut butter where hydrogenated fats are added to make it spreadable and so the oil won't separate opposed to the "natural" peanut butter that's a bit "loose." Cheers, Mark

[@AppliedScience]

Mmmm, peanut butter. Good example!

[@dailygratitudes1890]

This demonstration and explation is fantastic! Truely fantastic. You really got to the core of the issue about why saturated fat might be bad for your health. And showing the process of hydrogenation with your experimental setup was phenomenal. Wow. Thank you for the learning.

[@heloisaheng3189]

No, saturated fat is good

[@pelegsap]

Quick note: at 5:40 you drop a stir-bar into the flask, directly on the magnetic stirrer. This should be avoided, since it can shatter the glass (even relatively thick borosilicate glass...). What we used to do in my O-Chem laboratories back in undergrad was to slide the bar in while the flask is in an angle, and never above a magnetic stirrer. Aside from that, though - neat video!

[@DeanBiddler]

+Peleg Bar Sapir Agreed! That clink the stirbar made when dropped made my assole pucker.

[@revolutiongames2004]

Hydrogen gas? Check. Hexane? Check. Palladium? Check. Ballon? Na man.

[@googull2201]

wtf is Ballon?

[@johnanders8861]

Goo Gull I’m dying😂😂😂

[@diceblue6817]

ben looks like the kind of guy that has a lot of balloons on hand, but is always using them for tricks and fun, and just when he turns on the camera he realizes the re-order of 200 party balloons hasn't arrived yet

[@crystalholder2213]

This is fantastic!! , Well done, and since I am a visual learner it has stuck in my head. Saturated fats are much better for the body.

[@stevenalex4059]

Last time i dealt with chemsitry was like five years ago when i did my A level examination n had decided it just wasnt my thing. But i discovered your channel and has been binge watching it and it reminded me of my reason why i'd pursued it in the first place. thank you for making these videos!

[@tom_something]

Food scientist Alton Brown talked about types of fats in an episode of "Good Eats", and he used balloons to illustrate saturation. It was a mind-expanding experience for me, because I finally saw the relationship between electricity and chemistry. The big hydrogen balloons repelled each other. Well really, they had a radius, and since two balloons can't overlap in three-dimensional space, their latex borders push against one another. But this is analogous to hydrogen ions repelling one another, which is just a phenomenon of electric fields and like-charged particles. The even distribution of hydrogen ions along a saturated fatty acid results in an overall straight line. (A zig-zag, but when you zoom out, it has a definite origin and destination trajectory that are 180 degrees apart.) But when he popped a balloon, it showed there was an opportunity, or rather electrical incentive, for the whole thing to bend. The side with more hydrogen ions took the "outside" of this bend as they repelled each other. Or perhaps more accurately, the side with the missing hydrogen ion became shorter because there was less repulsion. This makes it a little more complicated for the triglycerides to get into inter-molecular formation, and with the kinetic distraction of heat, it's even more difficult. Meaning the threshold for the temperature at which the molecules can line up, its "solid temperature tolerance" if you will, goes down. I know this is very basic stuff, but I didn't really get it until I saw that visualization. It's like that game "Perfection", where there's a timer and you have to put all the shapes into their respective slots. When the timer goes off, the whole apparatus pops up and makes the pieces go everywhere. So to win, you have to put the pieces where they go before that happens. Saturation of fats is like reducing the variety of pieces, making it easier to put them where they go, while increasing the temperature is like speeding up the timer, making it harder to do that. And of course "winning" is analogous to making a solid. And unlike human players who can get better with time, molecules are indelibly subject to their circumstances and do not benefit whatsoever from experience. Also, that apparatus with the knobs to switch between evacuation and hydrogen infusion.... did you make that yourself? After seeing so many of your videos, it seems like the kind of thing you could and would make yourself.

[@azyfloof]

Ben, I've decided, you absolutely *must* get a labcoat with your Applied Science logo embroidered on it :D As a matter of urgency!

[@AppliedScience]

Yes, the thought has occurred to me ;) I've already made a T-shirt design, and will put it on teespring very soon.

[@rihardsrozans6920]

Knowing that this is a one year old comment and you get many more, I doubt you will read this, but badges would be pretty cool too. You could put them on any type of clothing.

[@carolynunwin5075]

Very interesting - thank you! I failed chemistry at school but this was beautifully understandable. Thank you!

[@jacker372]

In high school I was talking with my chem teacher about a similar process on oil spills. My idea was to use hydrolysis of salt water to change the structure of the crude oil to make it easier to clean. I've always lacked the means due to cost,time, and lack of equipment to test my theory. If you could i'd be highly interested if you could test the same process but with used motor oil rather then olive oil and using salt water as your solvent.

[@SG-ds8pr]

Electrolysis wouldn't change much of crude oil if any at all. It's mostly comprised of cyclic alkanes, aromatics and C1-C60 straight chain alkanes. The best thing to use would be a hydrophobic nonpolar absorbing agent.

[@geetaoh]

is there a way to chemically alter animal fat.. Like tullow / lard / fish into LIQUID oils at room temperature?

[@Jim361tx]

Best explanation of saturated and unsaturated fat i have ever seen... Thanks

[@unperrier5998]

Thanks for the video, blue thumb is in order :) That said, it's better you focus on physics and leave medecine to MD :) For a start, unlike what he said in the video, saturated and unsaturated fat don't end up in arteries. They're processed in our GI tract and eventually metabolized in the liver. At the end of the day triglycerides and cholesterol carried by lipoproteins (like chylomicron which turn into HDL and then become IDL and finally LDL) are the only two fats carried by the blood. Triglycerides are small and float easily. Imagine if any fat we ingest ended-up in the blood, remember the blood is an aqueous medium/environment... you'd end-up with phases like in a vinaigrette! Actually unsaturated fats (oils, even olive oil!) are worse for health than saturated fats because of that double bond (polyunsaturated oils even have several of them!) which is prone to attract oxygen molecules which renders the fat "rancid" (oxygenated) and which now acts as a free radical that will cause all sorts of troubles, thin particular it causes inflammation in organs like the liver. This oxygenation occurs within hours. How long do you usually keep your oil in the cupboard? ;) That said any type of fat is bad when consumed with glucose because of glycation: that's the only case when naturally occuring saturated fat (not hydrogenated) is bad, unfortunately every study assumes the American Diet which is high in carbs.... hence they conclude that saturated fat is bad, instead of the more logical conclusion that carbs are bad. He mentionned cavemen and our propension towards saturated fats: well, cavemen didn't have a lot of sugar and processed food laying around like we do since the 1950s. Instead they had meat and fats and a few vegetables and not a lot of carbs (fructose is directly sent to the liver to be metabolized and stored as fat), that's why saturated naturally fats occuring with meat were not harmful to them and they develop a keen sense for saturated fats that we inherited from them. (disclaimer: I'm not an MD but I like the topic)

[@Cylindropuntia]

This video is so well put together. Thank you Ben.

[@monto39]

Really wish I found these food sci videos when they came out. Great explanations for hydrogenated oil and trans fats

[@bovko1]

This video should be shown in schools!

[@fern69666]

just shown in my nutrition class

[@unperrier5998]

@@fern69666 I hope you corrected the bit about saturated fat not being healthy, because they actually are (except the man made hydrogenated ones of course)

[@imenabbasi8772]

interesting video, I was looking for how to turn oils into waxes for candle making, obviously, I am not a chemist, but this process seems interesting and promising, thank you for sharing

[@edgeeffect]

I love the analogy of tree-branches verses neatly stacked boards.... And a great simplification as to why unsaturated are better for your health.

[@unperrier5998]

too bad because saturated fat are better for the health than unsaturated. This is due to oxidation of the double bond which turns any oil into free radicals within hours!

[@arunramesh8133]

Wonderful demonstration with the related theory!

[@MrCarlsonsLab]

Another great Video Ben! Keep it up! It's been to long since the last. Take care.

[@liveandskint]

Brilliant! Thank you for showing us this process.

[@ulysse8182]

best video on the topic I've seen yet, thank you !!

[@manofohmchemicalcreations1983]

If I remember right, you can use a glass syringe with glass wool packed in it followed by celite to better filter out the catalyst. Essentially just pressure filtration through a thicker and finer filter.you can have it before or after the injection port on the syringe. A heated centrifuge would probably work better for recovery though.

[@Han-jv5lj]

thank you for this video helps me understanding how is margarine made by hydrogenation

[@ibrahim_mohamed3604]

Big thx to you Mr you helped me studying lipids in biology .👌

[@DanFrederiksen]

Nicely enlightening. Highlighting the incompetence and greedy indifference in chemistry in our society. 'We' have much too little respect for how sophisticated and delicate our biological machinery is.

[@crgarciamg]

I would really like to see you try it and tell us what it tastes like!

[@FueledByKass]

The way to perform this experiment was much simpler than what we did today in my Organic Lab. Instead of just adding hexene, we added cyclohexene and boiled. Barely people got good product so the lab itself wasn't very efficient.

[@skunkjobb]

One could also note that trans fatty acids are not only produced in industrial hydrogenation of fat (oil) but is also present naturally in meat (espacially from ruminants) and diary products. Pure milk based butter contains about 2-4 % trans fats.

[@laureamouroux1394]

Very clear and understandable, thank you for this video!

[@andreasheij]

Very cool to know about the Omega 3 thing :D

[@hw9876]

Thank you so much for the on-paper explanations. That really helped me understand.

[@ChrisB257]

Nice job Ben - as usual I learn something from every video you make.

[@MegaElvisd]

How do you go about recovering the catalyst, since you presumably would like to use your product, and that catalyst is very expensive?

[@bain5872]

Very very interesting! Thanks for illustrating a process that I knew very little about.

[@tamasmihaly1]

Such a wonderful learning experience. I really appreciate this guy.

[@sarasifg]

Hey Ben, what are you educated in? You are obviously a learned man given your skills and knowledge

[@dayleeuy]

Thank you for sharing this very informative video.

[@SadamFlu]

Thank you Ben! That made a lot of sense!

[@ThingEngineer]

Brilliantly informative and well explained! Thank you Ben. If we could just trick our taste buds/brain into thinking a cucumber slice is a french fry we wouldn't have to worry about this at all.

[@LukeBeacon]

Great video mate! One of the most impressive like/dislike ratios I've ever seen! 1k+ to 1!

[@ErikGomez]

You need your own tv show.

[@Matt-uf2nc]

Excellent video! Please put out more stuff like this!

[@TURTLEMMC23]

Here is what I just learned. That squiggly line is implied "C" "H" I've always wanted to know that. And the double line means double bond I didn't know that. I only have a HS edu. but I've looked all over the internet for both of those things. But had to find it here.

[@richardsandwell2285]

This is it, the Fuel of the future, perfect Hydrogen storage media.

[@JuliusUnique]

I learned so much just from this video! thanks so much!

[@kermichemgp]

you are genius man i need to learn a lot from you especially from lab techniques

[@didgitalpunk]

wow! thanks a lot Mr! I learned a lot of stuff today all thanks to you! keep making awesome videos, you're a really good teacher!

[@spiritandtruth246]

This was quite useful!! Science simplified. Appreciated.

[@liliwest6877]

Awesome, we were studying this today at school and your video helped me to understand some concepts. Thanks a lot! (:

[@shelbysgarage5828]

Some hydrogenation processes use a lot of pressure,some around 2000psi. From my understanding the pressure makes the process faster i believe. My question is if you use no pressure or less pressure does this stop the reaction,slow it or what exactly happens?

[@SpinStar1956]

Thanks for the video. They call these Franken-Fats. When these became available (around the 1900's) they used to bamboozle women to think that they were "unsophisticated" by using animal-fats and "stinking-up" their homes; whereas if they used products like Crisco they would not have the smell and their meals would be "healthier"--Ha! As far for saturated animal fats, lots of data showing they may not be that bad unless you consume sugars and starches to induce arterial inflammation. Re: Gary Taubs, Dr. William Davis, Stephen Phinney.etc Not sure what to formally conclude myself but really liked you chemical diagrams and real-world experiment...

[@Waiting_To_Retire]

I have a question. Even though it may not be cost effective, is it possible to "crack" a saturated fat, like lard or bacon grease into an unsaturated fat, in a similar way that crude oil is cracked into lighter fractions? It could have better health benefits and taste great with the drawback of being costly and a shorter shelf life.

[@Waiting_To_Retire]

***** Of course, like the reverse of what he's doing here with olive oil. Liquid bacon oil that's healthy. Mmmmmm.

[@geetaoh]

Did you ever find an answer to this?

[@TheWoodWorkingPilot]

(Another) great video. Thank you. That really organized my memories from chemistry class about the fatty acids. What parameters effect wether the unsaturated fat molecule will have a Trans or Cis structure?

[@blackbeagle7315]

thank you for the very clear explanation, it was very thorough and beautifully expounded

[@Kd8OUR]

Worked in the food industry for years. Never have seen the process in person.

[@robinhooodvsyou]

That catalyst must have been pretty costly.

[@cheerdiver]

At just under $900 oz spot, not cheap. Hear Pd went on a tear recently: www.kitco.com/charts/livepalladium.html Au to Pt ratio has yet to come full correction, IMO should be 2/3

[@astrialkil]

cheerdiver gasoline is 80+% Hexane.

[@swirlingabyss]

Palladium on carbon is easy to work with and is usually used for lab scale hydrogenation. In industry nickel based catalysts such as raney nickel or urushibara nickel are usually used

[@iffy1981]

Thanks Ben, a very thought-out educational video, margarine is a killer.

[@ΑλεξανδροςΝεστοριδης]

Such in informative video, congrats!

[@mathieu1341]

Hi Ben! Thanks for all your great videos! I've learned so much! Subscribed forever!! Cheers!

[@ewthmatth]

I'm not sure if it's true saturated and/or trans fats on their own taste better than unsaturated fats. Meat taste good because the fats carry flavor molecules well. Hydrogenated margarine tastes good from, I guess, added flavors. Oils are hydrogenated for other desirable properties, like the convenience of solidity, and shelf stability (polyunsaturated fats have poor shelf stability). Correct me if I'm wrong. :) Edit: also saturated (and even monounsaturated) fats are more stable under heat than polyunsaturated fats. (not sure about trans fats). Another fun fact: Polyunsaturated fats polymerized well under heat, so they are the best choice if you want to season your cast iron cookware.

[@TheFlacker99]

It would have been interesting to see a time lapse of the oil becoming hydrogenated in the flask :D

[@unknownaccwan8857]

This is something new, i never thought paladium can be use as catalyst... I only know nickel and platinum

[@MrMatte0000]

Awesome. Love your videos.

[@olympicus47]

If naturally occurring polyunsaturated fatty acids are "healthy" then i guess they're more likely to be in the cis configuration. What i didn't understand is how partial hydrogenation (and thereby removal of double bonds which allow for the difference between cis and trans) is able to make them switch from cis to trans

[@Madarpok]

Yes, the vast majority of natural unsaturated fatty acids are in the cis configuration. Trans fats form because the hydrogenation catalyst works both ways and can take away hydrogen as well as add it. The trans configuration is also a lower energy state(less stress in the bonds), so it is thermodynamically preferred over the cis config.

[@olympicus47]

I am very thankful for the clarification. To my shame it should have occured to me that the catalyst would work both ways since any catalyst works only to lower activation energy.

[@martinkovarik6676]

The modern technologies in food processing produces cis configuration of fat acid, no trans. trans configuration produces older technologies.

[@Madarpok]

Martin Kovarik Yes it is possible to reduce the trans fatty acid content, but the new technologies are more expensive. If the industry has no incentive or obligation to use a more expensive process, then they will use the cheap one and dont give a shit about health effects, cos profits.

[@nickcon13]

Because trans is energetically favored over cis all mixtures of the two will eventually become trans given enough time. It is a slow process at normal temperatures but when you heat the mixture so that you can partially hydrogenate it (note that it is partial meaning there may still be some pi-bonds) you make the cis-to-trans rearrangement speed up. This is why heating up cooking oil often (like at a restaurant that fries food) will cause no-trans fat oil to eventually increase in its content of trans fats.

[@nr7000000001]

You could also make your own phase changing material with this method, interesting

[@shonk3623]

you are underrated sir

[@TheAmusingMe]

Excellent video, thank you so much for sharing!

[@kgallchobhair]

Palladium on carbon is my favorite English town

[@JacobChrist]

Ben, do you know if they use Hexane when making hydrogenated oils in the food we "try to avoid" eating? Did you taste what you made?

[@unperrier5998]

Not sure 100% but I think they use high pressure and heat. That's also what Ben suggests in his video.

[@Cnidarian64]

At the end you could have the extra step and distilled the product over to a separate flask for a purer product.

[@IMQ567]

Hi, this is a great video...excellent 👍

[@brodaclop]

We also use saturated fats because they are much more stable under heat and thus produce far less harmful by-product when used at high temperatures such as frying.

[@cholestrol11]

Best lecture ever 10/10 . Very easy to understand. Is monounsaturated oil better than polyunasaturated ?

[@ThingsWhichArentWork]

Another awesome video... and now I know what Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil is :) - Thank you ever so much and keep the vids coming. :)

[@SetTheCurve]

There was a slight mistake in the explanation. Trans fats are caused by a reorganization of the bond, not hydrogen being added to the wrong side. As you can see, the molecule has the same amount of hydrogen in the trans state.

[@kanavaan8609]

fantastic video!

[@cybertwingo]

Man... I love your channel.

[@martinsarrionandia84]

Amazing Explanation. Thank you!

[@samsimpson4448]

If you hydrogenate Castor Oil , is it still 1) edible 2) easily absorbed by the body?

[@douro20]

This is usually done using nickel deposited on kieselguhr as a catalyst.

[@edwinrichardson5447]

Very informative video thanks!

[@Chad-Giga.]

Gotta love hexane, carbon, and palladium infused oil

[@gordongiobanni7543]

Everytime someone asks me what saturated fat is now I will be able to explain it to them or just send then to this video in which case they WILL STILL SAY SO WHAT IT TASTES GOOD. I guess I'm guilty of thT too. There is so much saturated fat in EVERYTHING these days

[@JodBronson]

Believe it or not, our bodies need both. It's like saying we need Negative Ions and forget about Positive Ions. Sorry world, but our bodies need both!

[@EqualsThreeable]

Very eye opening and explained well. Thanks for informing me.

[@emf4kv]

Thanks for the clear explanation. Great Video!!!

[@felixar90]

Liquid + gas = solid. You can't explain that! Actually that was a pretty solid explanation.

[@steeltoeflipflops]

I BELIEVE THE HEXANE WOULD BE REFERRED TO AS A "SUSPENSE" MATERIAL TO KEEP THE SOLUTION FLEXIBLE SO AS TO REMAIN A LIQUID LONGER WHILE PLAYING WITH IT.

[@ulysse8182]

Thank you for this video !

[@CharlieSolis]

While I understand that there are health risks and benefits to this process being done different ways how does this ultimately effect the “burn ability” or energy density of the cooking oil if we were talking post food use and into waste oil use? Which types make better biodiesel?

[@EMandMORE]

Terrific job. Thank you