What process is used to convert an unsaturated fatty acid into a saturated fatty acid?

Answer 1

Hydrogenation. This involved the forcing of hydrogen molecules into an unsaturated fat molecule which then causes it to be "saturated" with hydrogen atoms. This breaks the double bonds which gave the fat its bent shape and as a result hydrogenated fats are not chemically equivalent to natural saturated fats.

This is why trans fat has been found to be much worse than natural saturated fat.

Answer 2

A saturated fat is one where all carbon-carbon bonds are single. Unsaturated bonds feature double or triple bonds. For a lipid to become unsaturated, at least one carbon-carbon bond must be a double or triple bond.

Answer 3

Hydrogenation, also called 'fat hardening' because saturated have higher melting point than UNsaturated fats.

(Natural fats are mainly tri-glycerides of linear long chained fatty acids)

Answer 4

"Saturation" refers to C--C (Carbon to Carbon) bonds. If the bond is a single bond, then each carbon atom will have three additional bonds attached to it for a total of four bonds, which it needs to make its electron shell complete. These four bond include the C-C bond, as well as the three C-H bonds on each carbon. For this example, see ethane, C2H6 or CH3-CH3. Since the valence of C is 4, no more bonds may be attached, hence, each carbon is considered 'saturated'.

For a compound containing a C=C double bond, each carbon has TWO bonds to the other carbon but can have only two additional bonding sites, such as in ethylene (C2H4) or CH2=Ch2. The double bond creates an additional unused site on each carbon atom which can carry an H atom (but doesn't). Our example of ethylene above is then "unsaturated" because we can add two additional H to make the saturated CH3-CH3.

The fact that you asked about FATS just means that somewhere in the fat molecule there is one or more C=C double bonds. Hydrogenating the fat will turn all C=C bonds into single CH-CH bonds, and now you have a "saturated" fat.

Consider: CH2=CH2 + H2 -> CH3-Ch3. Here we 'saturated' the ethylene by adding two more hydrogen atoms to form ethane which is now 'saturated.

Answer 5

Transfer your solution into a flask, and place it on a lit bunsen burner. Slowly evaporate your fluid base (typically water) to decrease the total volume of your solution, while maintaining the saturation of the original solution. You can optionally slowly add more of the substance your attempting to saturate your solution with and mix it during the heating process.

Answer 6

The process that converts an unsaturated fat to a saturated fat is known as hydrogenation.

Answer 7

hydrogenation

Answer 8

Hydrogenation.