Catalytic reactions are a promising approach to solving the sustainability challenge by reducing energy consumption and waste generation in chemical production. These include the selective hydrogenation of carboxylic acids and esters, which plays a key role in industrial and laboratory chemistry. In this work, the selective reduction of an unsaturated fatty acid – oleic acid, into unsaturated fatty alcohols was investigated, with the possibility of distinguishing between cis and trans products, namely cis-octadec-9-enol and trans-octadec-9-enol. The active component of the catalyst consisted of ruthenium–tin alloy nanoparticles supported on neutral supports, namely silica and titanium dioxide, while dodecane was used as the solvent. The hydrogenation reaction was optimized, achieving high selectivity toward unsaturated alcohols while avoiding hydrogenation of the double bond. The highest selectivity of 80% was obtained using a RuSn/TiO$_2$ catalyst reduced for 6 hours at 600 °C, with a reaction yield of 62%. Other hydrogenation products included cis and trans unsaturated aldehydes, saturated alcohols and aldehydes, as well as mixed esters.
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