It has been found that when operating under preferred conditions, i.e. 150 to 225 C. and 35 to 150 psig using the sodium promoted catalyst and phenol of the quality defined above, the catalyst consumption is held to a surprising low figure and the used catalyst can be recovered and recycled almost indefinitely. In one batchwise series of runs, using 1 part of sodium promoted 5% palladium on charcoal catalyst (containing more than 1000 p.p.m. sodium) the catalyst was recovered and recycled six times without any appreciable change in product quality.