Process to continuously prepare an aqueous mixture of ε-caprolactam and ε-caprolactam precursors

This continuous process for preparing an aqueous mixture of epsilon-caprolactam and 6-aminocaptoic acid and/or 6-aminocaproamide which involves as the reductive amination step, continuously contacting 5-formylvaleric acid or an alkyl 5-formylvalerate in water as solvent with hydrogen and an excess of ammonia in the presence of a ruthenium on carrier, as a catalyst, wherein the carrier is at least one of titanium oxide or zirconium oxide. The aqueous mixture can de used to prepare ε-caprolactam.