Abstract: The invention relates to a process for producing a trifluoromethylbenzylamine represented by the following general formula (1). This process includes hydrogenating a trifliuoromethylbenzonitrile represented by the following general formula (2) by hydrogen in an organic solvent in the presence of ammonia, using a Raney catalyst, where each R independently represents a halogen selected from the group consisting of fluorine, chlorine, bromine and iodine, an alkyl group having a carbon atom number of 1-4, an alkoxy group having a carbon atom number of 1-4, an amino group, a hydroxyl group or a trifluoromethyl group, and n represents an integer from 0 to 4, where R and n are defined as above. With this process, it is possible to obtain the trifluoromethylbenzylamine easily and inexpensively at an extremely high yield.

Abstract: An improved process is discloses to prepare an amino carboxylic acid salt. According to the process an aqueous solution of an amino alcohol is contacted with an alkali metal hydroxide in the presence of an effective amount of Raney copper catalyst that has from about 10 parts per million of an element selected from the group consisting of bismuth, tin, antimony, lead, germanium and mixtures thereof.