Process and catalyst for dehydrogenating primary alcohols to make carboxylic acid salts

This invention is directed to a process for making a salt of a carboxylic acid. The process comprises contacting a catalyst with an alkaline mixture comprising a primary alcohol. In one embodiment, the catalyst comprises a metal supporting structure (preferably a metal sponge supporting structure comprising at least about 10% by weight nickel) having a copper-containing active phase at the surface thereof and iron as a catalyst modifier. The supporting structure is resistant to deformation under the conditions of the dehydrogenation reaction. This invention is also directed to novel nickel-containing catalysts having a copper-containing active phase and iron as a catalyst modifier which may, for example, be used in the above process. This invention is further directed to processes for making such catalysts.