March 24/Alexandria, Va./US Fed News -- U.S. patent no. 7,910,758, issued on March 22, was assigned to H R D Corp. for "Catalytic Hydrogenation Process for the Production of Low Trans Fat-Containing Triglycerides" was invented by Abbas Hassan (Sugarland, Texas), Ebrahim Bagherzadeh (Sugar Land, Texas), Rayford G. Anthony (College Station, Texas), Gregory Borsinger (Chatham, N.J.) and Aziz Hassan (Sugar Land, Texas).

According to the abstract released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, "Hydrogenated vegetable oil exhibiting superior thermal stability and containing reduced levels of saturates and trans fatty acids are produced using an activated hydrogenation catalyst and/or an improved hydrogenation process incorporating high shear. The use of a high-shear mechanical device incorporated into the hydrogenation process as a reactor device is shown to be capable of enabling reactions that would normally not be feasible under a given set of reaction pressure and temperature conditions. For example, the hydrogenation process described herein enables a reduction of hydrogenation time, and operation at lower temperatures than current processes. The resulting hydrogenated vegetable oil is particularly useful in frying, confectionery baking, and other applications where a product with a low trans fat content or higher thermal stability is desirable. The hydrogenated oil produced may comprise less than 10 weight % of trans fatty acids with less than 5 weight % of linolenic acid (C18:3)."

The patent was filed on Dec. 20, 2007, under Application No. 11/961,788.

For further information, visit: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=7910758&OS=7910758&RS=7910758

From the April 4, 2011, Prepared Foods E-dition