The stability and catalytic behaviour of a ruthenium complex with chloride and tridecylamine as ligands were studied. The hydrogenation of cyclohexene carried out in mild conditions, both in homogeneous and heterogeneous conditions, was used as a test reaction. FTIR and XPS results show that the active species is the complex itself, which is stable under the reaction conditions. XPS determination shows that the ruthenium complex is tetra-coordinated, suggesting that its formula is [RuCl2(NH2(CH2)(12)CH3)(2)]. This ruthenium complex supported on gamma -Al2O3 is more active and sulfur-resistant than the same complex unsupported and even more than a nickel complex with the above mentioned ligands. The Ru complex, supported or not, is also more active and sulfur-resistant than a conventional Ru/gamma -Al2O3 catalyst evaluated in the same operational conditions.