Over 75% of all chemicals and fuels require the use of a catalyst in their generation. However, despite their ubiquity, very little is known on the atomic and molecular processes occurring on the microscopic scale, particularly in the case of heterogeneous catalysts where the reactions occur in nanoscopic pores of the material. Our previous studies showed that it was possible, using total neutron scattering, to ascertain the kinetics of a model catalytic reaction (that of benzene hydrogenation), and subsequent experiments have gone on to look at the hydrogenation of toluene and phenylacetylene. However, all these reactions were studied neat - that is, the reactant also acted as its own solvent. Here, we propose to study the hydrogenation of butanone to butanol in the presence of water, in order to reveal the kinetics and structure in the presence of a solvent.