Mesoporous phosphate heterostructure (PPH) materials have been used as supports of ruthenium catalysts with a 5 wt.% metal content. A pristine support (SiPPH) was used, consisting of expanded zirconium phosphate with silica galleries and a potassium exchanged material (denoted as KSiPPH) which was prepared by the cationic exchange of the pristine support to reduce its original acidity by 20%. Ruthenium supported on both SiPPH and KSiPPH was obtained by incipient wetness impregnation using an aqueous solution of ruthenium(IH) chloride and reduction at 400 degrees C without previous calcination. These catalysts were assayed in the hydrogenation and hydrogenolysis/hydrocracking of tetralin at different temperatures. They show a similar catalytic performance although the 5Ru-SiPPH catalyst displays better activity at 350 degrees C, giving 95% conversion in the steady-state and a very good balance between yields of hydrogenation (55%) and hydrogenolyis/hydrocracking products (28%). This better performance could be due to its better metallic properties and greater acidity. In addition, the performance of the best catalyst was studied for thiotolerance with a feed containing dibenzothiophene (DBT), a sulphur containing molecule, at concentrations of 300 and 600 ppm. This catalyst shows an excellent performance with 300 ppm of DBT after 6 h on-stream. The catalysts were characterized by several instrumental techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), adsorption-desorption of nitrogen, temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) of NH3, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), TEM and H-2 and O-2-chemisorption. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All fights reserved.