Patent ID: 7074963

Claim:
A process for producing a secondary amine product which comprises heating a mixture comprising: a) hydrogen; b) a carbonyl compound represented by: and c) a primary amine reactant represented by the structure Râ€”NH 2 to any temperature in the range of about 80Â° C. to about 230Â° C. and under any pressure in the range of about 100 psig to about 3000 psig in the presence of an effective catalytic amount of a catalyst comprising metallic palladium, wherein said secondary amine product has the formula: in which R is any alkyl, aminoalkyl, alkylaryl, or aminoalkylaryl group, whether straight-chain, branched, or cyclic, Râ€² and Râ€³ are each independently selected from the group consisting of: hydrogen; C 1 â€“C 20 alkyl, whether straight-chain, branched, or cyclic, subject to the proviso that both Râ€² and Râ€³ are not simultaneously hydrogen, wherein the amount of tertiary amine produced during said process is less than 3.00% by weight of the total amount of secondary amine produced, and further wherein the secondary amine product is produced in a yield of at least 97.00% by weight based on all amine products produced.