Hydrogenation of acrylonitrile to propionitrile catalyzed by Raney Ni was accessible with good yield and high selectivity under optimized reaction conditions. Kinetic modeling was performed by means of computer aided autoclave reaction; the apparent activation energy of this reaction was determined to be 31.3 kJ/mol. This reaction is controlled by Raney Ni surface. The reaction is apparently zero-order reaction with respect to acrylonitrile and first-order reaction regarding the concentration of dissolved hydrogen in the liquid phase, respectively. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.