Processes are disclosed for producing gypsum-based products from a gypsum slurry. Additives or combinations of additives for improving compressive strength, fluidity and/or set time of the gypsum product are mixed in intimate contact with raw gypsum prior to or during grinding and/or flash calcination to form stucco. The stucco is used to prepare a gypsum slurry which is shaped and sets to form the gypsum product.

Disclosed are processes for producing propylene and butylene. The processes can include contacting a first stream containing methane with an oxidant and oxidizing at least a portion of the methane under conditions suitable to produce a second stream containing carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H.sub.2), contacting the second stream with a CO hydrogenation catalyst under conditions suitable to produce a third stream containing propanol and butanol, and contacting the third stream with an dehydration catalyst under conditions suitable to dehydrate at least a portion of the propanol and butanol and produce a products stream containing propylene and butylene.

A rare earth-containing Y zeolite has at least two mesopore pore-size distributions at 2-3 nanometers and 3-4 nanometers. A catalytic cracking catalyst contains the rare earth-containing Y zeolite. When used in the catalytic cracking of heavy oil, the catalytic cracking catalyst invention has excellent heavy oil conversion ability, higher gasoline yield, and lower coke selectivity.

Methods are provided for activation of catalysts comprising low amounts of a hydrogenation metal, such as low amounts of a Group 8-10 noble metal. The amount of hydrogenation metal on the catalyst can correspond to 0.5 wt % or less (with respect to the weight of the catalyst), or 0.1 wt % or less, or 0.05 wt % or less. Prior to loading a catalyst into a reactor, the corresponding catalyst precursor can be first activated in a hydrogen-containing atmosphere containing 1.0 vppm of CO or less. The thus first-activated catalyst can be transferred to a reactor with optional exposure to oxygen during the transfer, where it can be further activated using a hydrogen-containing atmosphere containing 3.0 vppm of CO or higher, to yield a twice-activated catalyst with high performance. The catalyst can be advantageously a transalkylation catalyst or an isomerization catalyst useful for converting aromatic hydrocarbons.

The present invention is directed to a shaped catalyst body for preparing ethylene oxide, which comprises at least silver, cesium and rhenium applied to an alumina support, wherein the alumina support comprises Si, Ca, and Mg in a defined amount. Furthermore, the present invention is directed to a process for preparing the catalyst according to the present invention and process for preparing ethylene oxide by gas-phase oxidation of ethylene by means of oxygen in the presence of a shaped catalyst body according to the present invention.

The invention relates to a catalyst comprising a support, at least one noble metal M, tin, phosphorus and ytterbium, the content of phosphorus element being greater than or equal to 0.2% by weight and less than 0.4% by weight, and the content of ytterbium being less than or equal to 1% by weight relative to the mass of the catalyst. The invention also relates to the process for preparing the catalyst and to the use thereof in reforming.

The present invention relates to a catalyst for preparing carbamates, in particular aromatic carbamates, comprising a binary oxide having the formula L.sub.1-xM.sub.xO.sub.2, wherein L is a metal selected from the lanthanoid series and M is a metal selected from the group consisting of Sc, Y, Ti, Zr, Hf, metals from the lanthanoid series and metals from the actinoid series, and wherein x ranges from 0.01 to 0.05. The present invention also relates to a method for producing said catalysts and a method of utilizing said catalysts in the production of carbamates, in particular aromatic carbamates.

A tungsten carbide powder contains tungsten carbide as a main component and chromium, in which, when mass concentrations of tungsten and chromium are measured at 100 or more analysis points randomly selected from a field of view of SEM observation of the tungsten carbide powder, a standard deviation σ of distribution of the ratio by percentage of the concentration of chromium to the total concentration of tungsten and chromium is 0.5 or less.

The invention discloses use of a catalyzed particulate filter loaded with a silver-zirconia catalyst prepared by citric acid-assisted sol-gel method for soot removal from engine exhaust. The invention discloses a method of making xAg/ZrO.sub.2 where x is 20 mol %, said method comprises: mixing aqueous solutions of AgNO.sub.3 and ZrO(NO.sub.3).sub.2 hydrate to produce a first mixture, adding an aqueous solution of citric acid to the first mixture, wherein the molar ratio of metal ions to citric acid is about 1:3 to produce a second mixture; heating the second mixture to about 80-90° C. to evaporate excess water in the second mixture to form a viscous gel, charring the viscous gel at about 200° C. for about 12 hours to produce a foam-like material, grounding the foam-like material to form a grounded material, and calcinating the grounded material at 500° C. for about 10 hours.

A catalyst structure includes a porous support structure, where the support structure includes an aluminosilicate material. Any two or more metals are loaded in the porous support structure, the two or more metals selected from the group consisting of Ga, Ag, Mo, Zn, Co and Ce, where each metal loaded in the porous support structure is present in an amount from about 0.1 wt % to about 20 wt %. In example embodiments, the catalyst structure includes three or more of the metals loaded in the porous support structure. The catalyst structure is used in a hydrocarbon upgrading process that is conducted in the presence of methane, nitrogen or hydrogen.