Patent ID: 6911566

Claim:
A process for producing 1,3-propanediol, comprising: hydrating acrolein in a liquid phase in the presence of a hydration catalyst to form 3-hydroxypropanal; separating any unreacted acrolein, if any is present; and carrying out catalytic hydrogenation of the 3-hydroxypropanal in a liquid or gas phase with a hydrogenation catalyst, wherein the hydration catalyst is a catalyst comprising at least one member selected from the group consisting of the following materials (a) to (c) and has a pH of 6 or less at 20° C., when made into a slurry by dispersing the catalyst in a quantity of water 5 tim s as much as the quantity of catalyst by weight ratio: (a) a metalloaluminophosphate molecular sieve, (b) a FER type zeolite, and (c) an oxide or compound oxide, excluding crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites, which comprises one or more element(s) selected from the elements belonging to group 4, group 13 and group 14 of the periodic table, and the oxide or mixed oxide is one obtained by contacting the oxide or compound oxide with one or more acids selected from the group consisting of sulfuric acid and monobasic acids and washing with water until the washings become free of acid(s).