Increasing the life of a supported ruthenium catalyst in the hydrogenation of an olefinically unsaturated dinitrile

摘要

In a process for hydrogenating an olefinically unsaturated dinitrile in which the reactants in a solvent are passed through a ruthenium on alumina catalyst, the improvement which comprises operating at a reduced pressure during the early contact with the catalyst and slowly increasing the pressure over an extended interval of time to normal operating pressure. This startup procedure greatly increases the run length (life) of the catalyst bed.