Name the reaction which is commonly used in the conversion of vegetable oil to fats. Explain the reaction involved in detail.

Explanation

The reaction is known as hydrogenation reaction. When vegetable oils are treated with hydrogen and passed over finely divided nickel or palladium at `200^(@)C`, the hydrogen molecules are added to the unsaturated carbon-carbon bonds hence, saturated vegetable fats are obtained.
e.g.,

where, R is any alkyl group i.e., `-CH_(3),-C_(2)H_(5)` etc.
Industrial Application The process of hydrogenation is used in industry to convert vegetable oils to vanaspati ghee.
`"Vegetable oil"+H_(2)overset("Ni",473K)to"Vanaspati ghee"`