A unique process and catalyst is described that operates efficiently for the direct production of a high cetane diesel type fuel or diesel type blending stock from stochiometric mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This invention allows for, but is not limited to, the economical and efficient production high quality diesel type fuels from small or distributed fuel production plants that have an annual production capacity of less than 10,000 barrels of product per day, by eliminating traditional wax upgrading processes. This catalytic process is ideal for distributed diesel fuel production plants such as gas to liquids production and other applications that require optimized economics based on supporting distributed feedstock resources.

Porous, extruded titania-based materials further comprising one or more quaternary ammonium compounds and/or prepared using one or more quaternary ammonium compounds, Fischer-Tropsch catalysts comprising them, uses of the foregoing, processes for making and using the same and products obtained from such processes.

A unique process and catalyst is described that operates efficiently for the direct production of a high cetane diesel type fuel or diesel type blending stock from stochiometric mixtures of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. This invention allows for, but is not limited to, the economical and efficient production high quality diesel type fuels from small or distributed fuel production plants that have an annual production capacity of less than 10,000 barrels of product per day, by eliminating traditional wax upgrading processes. This catalytic process is ideal for distributed diesel fuel production plants such as gas to liquids production and other applications that require optimized economics based on supporting distributed feedstock resources.

A method of making a multicomponent photocatalyst, includes inducing precipitation from a pre-cursor solution comprising a pre-cursor of a plasmonic material and a pre-cursor of a reactive component to form co-precipitated particles; collecting the co-precipitated particles; and annealing the co-precipitated particles to form the multicomponent photocatalyst comprising a reactive component optically, thermally, or electronically coupled to a plasmonic material.

Porous, extruded titania-based materials further comprising zirconium oxide and/or prepared using ammonium zirconium carbonate, Fischer-tropsch catalysts comprising them, uses of the foregoing, processes for making and using the same and products obtained from such processes.

The present invention relates to a process for conveniently preparing a supported cobalt-containing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst having improved activity and selectivity for C.sub.5+ hydrocarbons. In one aspect, the present invention provides a process for preparing a supported cobalt-containing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis catalyst, said process comprising the steps of: (a) impregnating a support material with: i) a cobalt-containing compound and ii) acetic acid, or a manganese salt of acetic acid, in a single impregnation step to form an impregnated support material; and (b) drying and calcining the impregnated support material; wherein the support material impregnated in step (a) has not previously been modified with a source of metal other than cobalt; and wherein when the cobalt-containing compound is cobalt hydroxide, a manganese salt of acetic acid is not used in step (a) of the process.

A Fischer-Tropsch process for synthesizing hydrocarbons, by bringing a catalyst comprising a support and an active phase comprising a Group VIII metal into contact with a feedstock comprising synthesis gas, said catalyst being prepared according to the following steps: a) a porous support is provided; b) an organic compound containing oxygen and/or nitrogen is added to the porous support; c) a step of bringing said porous support into contact with a solution containing a salt of a precursor of the phase comprising a Group VIII metal is carried out; d) the porous support obtained at the end of step c) is dried;
characterized in that step b) is carried out by bringing together said porous support and said organic compound under conditions of temperature, pressure and duration such that a fraction of said organic compound is transferred in the gaseous state to the porous support.

A method of producing normally solid, normally liquid and optionally normally gaseous hydrocarbons involves contacting a gas mixture comprising hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a catalyst under elevated temperature and pressure, to convert at least part of the hydrogen and carbon monoxide into hydrocarbons. An effluent is withdrawn from the reactor and subjected to a separation step to form at least a heavy fraction and a light fraction. The heavy fraction comprises normally solid hydrocarbons, while the light fraction comprises unconverted syngas and normally liquid and optionally normally gaseous hydrocarbons. The light fraction is sent to a light ends stripper operating at a temperature of maximally 200 C. to obtain a hydrocarbons fraction comprising normally liquid hydrocarbons. The heavy fraction is subjected to flash evaporation or steam stripping to obtain a hydrocarbon stream of normally solid hydrocarbons (comprising mainly C10+ hydrocarbons).

Processes and catalysts for producing hydrogen by reforming methane are disclosed, which afford considerable flexibility in terms of the quality of the reformer feed. This can be attributed to the robustness of the noble metal-containing catalysts described herein for use in reforming, such that a number of components commonly present in methane-containing process streams can advantageously be maintained without conventional upgrading (pretreating) steps, thereby improving process economics. This also allows for the reforming of impure reformer feeds, even in relatively small quantities, which may be characterized as complex gas mixtures due to significant quantities of non-methane components. A representative reforming catalyst comprises 1 wt-% Pt and 1 wt-% Rh as noble metals, on a cerium oxide support.

The invention relates to potassium-promoted, Fe.sup.2+(Fe.sup.3+yAl.sup.3+i-y)2.sup.o4 [0.3<.sub.y0.7] silica-containing extrudates, processes for the preparation of the extrudates with the aid of colloidal silica, and the use of the extrudates to catalyze processes for producing liquid hydrocarbons.