A process is provided for converting mevalonic acid into various useful products and derivatives. More particularly, the process comprises reacting mevalonic acid, or a solution comprising mevalonic acid, in the presence of a solid catalyst at an elevated temperature and pressure to thereby form various biobased products. The process may also comprise: (a) providing a microbial organism that expresses a biosynthetic mevalonic acid pathway; (b) growing the microbial organism in fermentation medium comprising suitable carbon substrates, whereby biobased mevalonic acid is produced; and (c) reacting the biobased mevalonic acid in the presence of a solid catalyst at an elevated temperature and pressure to yield various biobased products.

Methods of simultaneously converting butanes and methanol to olefins over Ti-containing zeolite catalysts are described. The exothermicity of the alcohols to olefins reaction is matched by endothermicity of dehydrogenation reaction of butane(s) to light olefins resulting in a thermo-neutral process. The Ti-containing zeolites provide excellent selectivity to light olefins as well as exceptionally high hydrothermal stability. The coupled reaction may advantageously be conducted in a staged reactor with methanol/DME conversion zones alternating with zones for butane(s) dehydrogenation. The resulting light olefins can then be reacted with iso-butane to produce high-octane alkylate. The net result is a highly efficient and low cost method for converting methanol and butanes to alkylate.

A catalyst having coke wherein the coke, upon analysis by infrared spectroscopy in diffuse reflection, has at least two peaks at a wavelength between 1450 cm.sup.−1 and 1700 cm.sup.−1.

The aforesaid catalyst having coke can be advantageously used in a process for the production of a diene, preferably a conjugated diene, more preferably 1,3-butadiene, said process having the dehydration of at least one alkenol having a number of carbon atoms greater than or equal to 4.

Preferably, the alkenol having a number of carbon atoms greater than or equal to 4 can be obtained directly from biosynthetic processes, or through catalytic dehydration processes of at least one diol.

When the alkenol is a butenol, the diol is preferably a butanediol, more preferably 1,3-butanediol, even more preferably bio-1,3-butanediol, i.e. 1,3-butanediol deriving from biosynthetic processes.

When the diol is 1,3-butanediol, or bio-1,3-butanediol, the diene obtained with the process is, respectively, 1,3-butadiene, or bio-1,3-butadiene.

According to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, chemical streams may be processed by a method which may comprise operating a first chemical process, stopping the first chemical process and removing the first catalyst from the reactor, and operating a second chemical process. The reaction of the first chemical process may be a dehydrogenation reaction, a cracking reaction, a dehydration reaction, or a methanol-to-olefin reaction. The reaction of the second chemical process may be a dehydrogenation reaction, a cracking reaction, a dehydration reaction, or a methanol-to-olefin reaction. The first reaction and the second reaction may be different types of reactions.

Fischer-Tropsch process for the synthesis of hydrocarbons by bringing a feedstock including synthesis gas into contact with a catalyst prepared by the following: a porous support is brought into contact with a cobalt metal salt of which the melting point of the cobalt metal salt is between 30 and 150° C. for between 5 minutes and 5 hours, in order to form a solid mixture, the weight ratio of said cobalt metal salt to the porous oxide support being between 0.1 and 1; the solid mixture obtained is heated with stirring under atmospheric pressure at a temperature between the melting point of the cobalt metal salt and 200° C. for a period of time of between 30 minutes and 12 hours; the solid obtained is calcined at a temperature above 200° C. and below or equal to 1100° C.

A multilayer supported oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) catalyst composition (support, first single oxide layer, one or more mixed oxide layers, optional second single oxide layer) characterized by formula A.sub.aZ.sub.bE.sub.cD.sub.dO.sub.x/support; A is alkaline earth metal; Z is first rare earth element; E is second rare earth element; D is redox agent/third rare earth element; the first, second, third rare earth element are not the same; a=1.0; b=0.1-10.0; c=0.1-10.0; d=0-10.0; x balances oxidation states; first single oxide layer (Z.sub.b1O.sub.x1, b1=0.1-10.0; x1 balances oxidation states) contacts support and one or more mixed oxide layers; one or more mixed oxide layers (A.sub.a2Z.sub.b2E.sub.c2D.sub.d2O.sub.x2, a2=1.0; b2=0.1-10.0; c2=0.1-10.0; d2=0-10.0; x2 balances oxidation states; A.sub.aZ.sub.bE.sub.cD.sub.dO.sub.x and A.sub.a2Z.sub.b2E.sub.c2D.sub.d2O.sub.x2 are different) contacts first single oxide layer and optionally second single oxide layer, and second single oxide layer (AO), when present, contacts one or more mixed oxide layers and optionally first single oxide layer.

The present invention provides a catalyst composition for the production of olefins from lighter alkanes by oxidative dehydrogenation route and methods of making the dehydrogenation catalyst composites.

The present invention is a process for dehydrating an alcohol to prepare a corresponding olefin, comprising: (a) providing a composition (A) comprising at least an alcohol having at least 2 carbon atoms, optionally water, optionally an inert component, in a dehydration unit, (b) placing the composition (A) into contact with an acidic catalyst in a reaction zone of said dehydration unit at conditions effective to dehydrate at least a portion of the alcohol to make a corresponding olefin, (c) recovering from said dehydration unit an effluent (B) comprising : at least an olefin, water, undesired by-products including aldehydes and light products, optionally unconverted alcohol(s), optionally the inert component,
wherein, said composition (A)-providing step (a) comprises adding an effective amount of one or more sulfur containing compound capable to reduce the undesired by-products by comparison with a non introduction of such sulfur containing compound.

The component introduced at step (a) can be chosen from the group consisting of thiols, sulfides, disulfides.

The invention is concerned with the oligomerization of supercritical ethene. An essential aspect of the invention is that of mixing ethene with an inert medium and setting the conditions in the reaction such that both ethene and inert medium are supercritical. This is because the solubility for ethene in the inert medium is greater in the supercritical state, such that more ethene is dissolved in the supercritical inert medium than in a liquid solvent. The process regime in the supercritical state therefore enables the use of a much higher proportion of ethene in a homogeneous mixture of ethene and inert medium than is possible on the basis of the thermodynamic solubility restriction in a purely liquid hydrocarbon stream. In this way, the space-time yield is distinctly enhanced. Since a greater amount of ethene can be passed into the reactor, it is possible as a result to better exploit the apparatus volume compared to a liquid phase process. The inert medium used may, for example, be isobutane.

Increase propane dehydrogenation activity of a partially deactivated dehydrogenation catalyst by heating the partially deactivated catalyst to a temperature of at least 660° C., conditioning the heated catalyst in an oxygen-containing atmosphere and, optionally, stripping molecular oxygen from the conditioned catalyst.