The invention relates to method of enhancing yield of alkyl taurate amides using enhancing specifically phosphoric acid catalysts. It further relates to the use of phosphoric acid to enhance yield while avoiding and/or reducing undesirable browning.

The present invention concerns a process for oligomerizing an olefin feedstock to form an oligomerization product, and a method of controlling such an oligomerization process. The process comprises oligomerizing propylene to form a C.sub.n olefin, including contacting a feed stream comprising propylene and a recycle fraction with a solid phosphoric acid oligomerization catalyst under effective oligomerization conditions in an oligomerization reactor to produce an oligomerization effluent; and fractionating the oligomerization effluent to obtain a product fraction and the recycle fraction, the product fraction comprising the C.sub.n olefin and the recycle fraction comprising a C.sub.n-3 olefin; wherein the recycle fraction comprises at least 80 wt % of the C.sub.n-3 olefin, based on the weight of the recycle fraction; and wherein n is 9, or 12.

Methods of producing at least one of ethylene and propylene. The methods may include contacting a mixture of C4+ compounds with a catalyst to convert at least a portion of the C4+ compounds to at least one of ethylene and propylene. The catalyst can include a phosphorus treated zeolite, and the mixture of C4+ compounds can include at least one of t-butyl alcohol and methyl t-butyl ether.

Oligomerizing C.sub.4 and C.sub.5 olefins over a SPA catalyst provides an oligomerate product stream comprising C.sub.6+ olefins that meets a gasoline T-90 specification of 380 F. The oligomerate product stream can be taken to the gasoline pool without further upgrading.

Process for converting an olefin containing hydrocarbon feed into an oligomerization product or a hydrogenated oligomerization product, comprising contacting the feed in a reactor with an oligomerization catalyst under conditions suitable to oligomerize the olefin to obtain an oligomerization product and optionally hydrogenating the oligomerization product wherein the content of the at least one C.sub.4-, C.sub.5-, C.sub.6- or C.sub.7-cyclic olefin in the feed is controlled.

The invention relates to method of enhancing yield of alkyl taurate amides using enhancing specifically phosphoric acid catalysts. It further relates to the use of phosphoric acid to enhance yield while avoiding and/or reducing undesirable browning.

Methods of producing at least one of ethylene and propylene. The methods may include contacting a mixture of C4+ compounds with a catalyst to convert at least a portion of the C4+ compounds to at least one of ethylene and propylene. The catalyst can include a phosphorus treated zeolite, and the mixture of C4+ compounds can include at least one of t-butyl alcohol and methyl t-butyl ether.

The present invention discloses a process for preparing perhydrofluorene or alkyl-substituted perhydrofluorene, comprising the steps of: (1) reacting a phenolic compound or an aromatic hydrocarbon compound or an aromatic ketone compound or an aromatic ether compound with a benzyl compound to carry out an alkylation reaction in the presence of a first catalyst, thereby to produce substituted or unsubstituted diphenyl methane, wherein the first catalyst is an acidic catalyst; and (2) reacting the substituted or unsubstituted diphenyl methane with hydrogen gas to carry out an hydrogenation reaction or a hydrodeoxygenation reaction, thereby to produce perhydrofluorene or alkyl-substituted perhydrofluorene, wherein the second catalyst is a physical mixture of a metal catalyst and an acidic catalyst or a metal catalyst loaded on an acidic catalyst.

The present invention relates to a new process for the synthesis of 2,3,4,5,6,7-substituted indenes, which are useful precursors for the formation of certain ansa-metallocene catalysts.

The invention provides non-naturally occurring microbial organisms having a butadiene pathway. The invention additionally provides methods of using such organisms to produce butadiene.