Hydrogenated catalyst, preparation and application of same

A hydrogenation catalyst is specified containing nickel, nickel oxide, magnesium oxide, sodium oxide and a water-insoluble support material, which is characterised in that the hydrogenation catalyst is composed of 25 to 50% by weight of nickel (metallic) 10 to 35% by weight of nickel oxide 4 to 12% by weight of magnesium oxide 1 to 5% by weight of sodium oxide remainder support material and the sum of nickel and nickel oxide is 40 to 70% by weight, the hydrogenation catalyst having a BET surface area of 80 to 200 m /g and a total pore volume, determined by Hg porosimetry, of 0.35 to 0.6 ml/g and the total pore volume being divided up into 30 to 60% by volume having a pore radius of 40 to 300 ANGSTROM , 30 to 60% by volume having a pore radius of > 300 to 5000 ANGSTROM . In addition, a process for the production of the hydrogenation catalyst is specified, which is characterised in that a green catalyst is prepared in a precipitation stage from nickel salt, magnesium salt, soda and support material, this green catalyst, after separating off the mother liquor and partial washing, is slurried in alkali solution, separated off from the liquid phase, dried and the dried green catalyst is treated with hydrogen until 42 to 83% by weight of the total nickel content is present in metallic form. The hydrogenation catalyst according to the invention is suitable in particular for the hydrogenation of propanal, n-butanal and i-butanal at temperatures between 100 and 160@C.