palladium on carbon catalyst were added to a one liter parr autoclave the reactor was then purged by pressurization with nitrogen and vented three times in succession the pressure of the autoclave was checked and thereafter the autoclave was pressurized with nitrogen and vented twice more finally the contents were heated to 135 u00b0 c and with the reactor pressurized to 300 psig with h 2 2 ethylhexanal was added gradually and at a substantially uniform rate over the next three hours the reaction mixture was permitted to digest over the next half hour at which time gas chromatographic analysis disclosed 94 12 conversion to the secondary amine tallowalkyl 2 ethylhexylamine with approximately 2 54 remaining as unreacted primary amine and 1 25 conversion to the tertiary amine the mixture was allowed to digest for several more hours at 135 u00b0 c and the reactor pressure increased to 400 psig with hydrogen as necessary upon discharge of the mixture from the reactor the following day the water therein was visually distinct and separated and the remaining product was filtered the filtrate was substantially all tallowalkyl 2 ethylhexylamine which was methylated to form the present novel quaternary ammonium chloride in accordance with the methylation procedure.