Patent ID: 7732634

Claim:
A process comprising: (a) contacting one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids or a mixture of one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids with a source of hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst comprising one or more catalytically active metal sites located on a catalyst support, under hydrogenation conditions, whereby at least one of said one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids or mixture of one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids are hydrogenated to provide a product; (b) recovering said product; wherein at least one of said catalytically active metal sites has been obtained via the partial decomposition on said catalyst support of a complex of a Transition Group VIII metal and a compound selected from the group consisting of (i) amino acids and (ii) aliphatic amines comprising one or more hydroxyl groups, partial decomposition having been carried out such that new vibration bands appear in the infra red spectrum of the complex at between 2100-2200 cm −1 and (a) having been carried out in the presence of hydrogen or (b) being followed by treatment with hydrogen.