The hydration of butene-1 is investigated in the presence of different solid acid catalysts. The reacting conditions were varied such that butene was present either as a liquid phase or as a supercritical fluid in the reaction mixture. The desired product see-butanol is extracted out fi-om the reacting aqueous phase during the course of the reaction and such a transfer helps in increasing the conversion and reaction rates. The hydration is accompanied by isomerization, oligomerization and etherification reactions. Zeolite ZSM-5 was found to be a more active catalyst than ion exchange resins and a SiO2/Al2O3 ratio between 30 and 50 was found to be most effective, However. the zeolites rapidly get deactivated during the course of the reaction. The rate of deactivation increases with temperature and hence the reaction under supercritical conditions did not provide much advantage when zeolite catalysts were used. The reactions in solid-liquid-liquid mode, on the other hand, offer similar conversion level with milder reaction condition and may be a promising alternative.