Various precious metal catalysts can be used for the chemical catalytic methanation of carbon dioxide (CO2), whereby nickel and ruthenium-based catalysts are widely used. This work compares the performance of Ni/Al2O3 and Ru/Al2O3 catalysts based on the CO2 conversion and the axial temperature profile development in the reactor. In addition, a suitable kinetic model for the methanation on ruthenium catalysts is searched and evaluated, based on the experimental tests in the cooled double-tube reactor at the pilot plant at the Chair of Process Technology and Environmental Engineering. In the course of the test series, various operating parameters such as pressure level, cooling temperature and the gas flow rate related to the catalyst volume (GHSV) are varied. A broad literature research identifies suitable kientic models that are assessed and validated by two different simulation approaches (Aspen Plus and Matlab). The experiments show that the ruthenium catalyst only achieves a better CO2 conversion than the nickel catalyst at high pressures (> 10 bar) and low cooling temperatures (< 280 °C). With regard to the axial temperature curve in the reactor, the occurring temperature peaks for ruthenium are reached significantly further downstream in the catalyst bed compared to nickel - especially for low cooling temperatures (280°C) by just under 0.05 m. The simulations confirm the result, whereby the adapted kinetic model according to Falbo et al. represents the experimental results well in terms of CO2 conversion, temperature profile and mole fractions, especially for low flow rates at 8000 h-1 and low pressures of 6 bar. For future test series, it can be concluded that the higher activity of ruthenium can achieve even higher CO2 conversions, especially at lower cooling temperatures between 230-280 °C and pressures > 10 bar.