The role of acid-base properties and reconstruction degree of the hydrotalcite-derived materials (MgZn- CuAl) in the catalytic hydrogenation of nitrates reaction is studied. In addition, the catalysts have been tested in a batch and continuous reactor to evaluate the influence of the reactor configuration on the catalytic performance. The characterizations of the samples have been performed by XRD, TPR, BET, TEM and MBOH test reaction. A clearly influence of the acid-base properties of the catalysts, modulated by the Zn incorporation, is observed with an increase in the nitrogen selectivity. Besides the common operational parameter differences between work in continuous and discontinuous systems, it shows great differences in the reconstruction degree of the samples. Higher reconstruction leads to higher nitrate reduction and a decrease of nitrite production.