The kinetics of the gas phase selective hydrogenation of methyl acetylene (MA) and propadiene (PD) over a Pd/alumina catalyst were investigated in a fixed bed tubular reactor at temperatures 60-80 degrees C and a pressure of 20 bar. Hougen-Watson type kinetic equations were derived. The formation of higher oligomers slowly deactivated the catalyst. The effect of the deactivating agent on the rates of the main reactions as well as on the deactivating agent formation itself was expressed in terms of a deactivation function multiplying the corresponding rates at zero deactivation. Finally, the kinetic model was plugged into the reactor model to simulate an industrial adiabatic reactor.