The hydrogenation of buta-1,3-diene and more briefly, the hydroisomerisation of but-1-ene catalysed by powdered CePd3, ZrPd3 and Pd sponge has been studied in a fixed bed continuous flow microreactor at 1 bar (101.5 kPa) total pressure and in the temperature range 45-225-degrees-C. The two intermetallics (CePd3, ZrPd3) exhibited greater selectivity for butene formation than palladium, especially at high buta-1,3-diene conversions. The superior selectivity of the intermetallics was demonstrated further under the more demanding conditions, whereby but-1-ene was added to the feed buta-1,3-diene in the ratio C4H8/C4H6 = 24. The kinetics and apparent energies of activation were determined for the hydrogenation and isomerisation reactions. In the case of buta-1,3-diene hydrogenation, the kinetics suggest that for Pd sponge, hydrogen and buta-1,3-diene adsorb on similar sites, whereas in the case of the intermetallics different sites may be involved for hydrogen and buta-1,3-diene adsorption, which may result from palladium-metal oxide interactions. In the case of but-1-ene isomerisation, double bond migration appears to occur via addition-abstraction mechanisms on all three catalysts but in the case of the intermetallics hydrogenation and isomerisation involve different rate determining steps.