Patent ID: 7893295

Claim:
A process for hydrogenating one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids or one or more derivatives thereof, or a mixture of one or more benzenepolycarboxylic acids or one or more derivatives thereof, the derivative being an ester produced by the esterification of the acid with an alcohol, comprising contacting benzenepolycarboxylic acid or the derivative thereof or the mixture with a hydrogen-containing gas in the presence of a catalyst in the presence of 5 to 30% excess alcohol than that required to achieve complete esterification of the acid, said catalyst comprising one or more catalytically active Group VIII metals applied to one or more mesoporous support materials; wherein the process hydrogenates at 97% or greater mole % conversion and wherein the product produced by the process comprises less than 1.5% of lights materials, by weight based on the total weight of the product.