The exchange of butane with deuterium on a nickel/alumina catalyst is studied over a wide range of temperatures (SO-230°) and for three hydrocarbon/deuterium ratios. The initial distribution is used to propose a reaction scheme by considering different adsorbed species such as: alkyl-(cc), alkene-(a,B) and allyl-(cc,p,y) species, where a, 8, and yare different C-atoms. It is assumed that each adsorbed species can either desorb directly while exchanging one, two, and three H-atoms or undergo multiple exchange before desorption. It is shown that by reducing the activity of the catalyst a back-exchange of the fully deuterated species sets in a lower temperature; a systematic deviation of all model calculations for the estimation of the concentrations of the C4HD9 and C4DI0 is, thus, explained. The exchange of CH3CD2CD,CH, and CD,CH2CH2CD3 with H, and Dz is also studied, and similar results are obtained as with exchanges of CH,CD2CH3 and CD3CH2CD3. With the help of very-high-resolution mass spectra, it is shown that the initial degree of deuteration, i.e. the degree of deuteration after one adsorption step, is 84% for the methylene and 57% for the methyl group respectively. The hydrogenolysis reactions of butane is studied in the same system between 180" and 230". A wide range of conversion is covered, and the product distributions are fitted to kinetic equations in order to obtain the initial rate constants. On the nickel/alumina catalyst one or several C-C bonds are broken before the desorption of the species. Under the conditions used in these experiments, the surface cracking is the rate-limiting step. An isotope effect is observed for the decomposition in D,, the production of propane being favored.Introduction. -Exchange Reactions. The D exchange in saturated hydrocarbons has been intensively studied on different type of catalysts in order to understand the mechanism of hydrocarbon reactions on metals. Studies involving exchange between D, and butane has been described in several publications [ 1-81, but only one author worked with Ni catalyst [9].In [lo], we have modified a model proposed earlier for C, hydrocarbons/D, exchange on the same catalyst [l I]. The study of the propane/D, exchange could be explained by assuming mono-and triadsorbed species. However, at low temperature and by studying two labeled propanes, CH,CD,CH, and CD,CH,CD,, with H, or D,, the presence of a diadsorbed species had also to be taken into consideration. The number of parameters needed to quantify the exchange reaction was thus five, an unreasonable high number. To test the ideas developed earlier, we extended these studies to the next member of saturated alkanes, butane.Hydrogenolysis Reactions. The hydrogenolysis reactions of butane were studied on Ni films [ 121, on 10% Ni/silica gel in integral packed or fluidized bed reactors [ 131 [14], on Ni powder [15], Ni-Cu over silica-supported catalyst [16], and 5 wt.-% Ni on dealuminated silica-alumina catalyst [17]. Nazimek and Ryczkowski [18] have studied the same reaction to show the...