Petroleum refinery processes using catalyst of aluminosilicate sols and powders

Claim 1

In a catalytic process for petroleum refining under conventional conditions, the improvement wherein the catalyst composition used comprises porous aggregates of spheroidal particles of from 3 to 90 nanometers which particles are nonporous to nitrogen and contain: (a) a core of silica, aluminosilicate or one or more refractory metal oxides selected from alumina, zirconia, titania, thoria and rare earth oxides; (b) a coating around said core of at least 0.5 nanometer in depth of an amorphous hydrous aluminosilicate compound having a molar ratio of Si:Al of from 1:1 to 19:1 and comprising one or more cations selected from sodium, potassium, ammonium, hydrogen and Groups I to VIII metals selected from Cs, Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, La, Ce, rare earth metals, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Sn, Cd, Bi and Sb; and (c) a surface layer over said coating of 0 to 15% by weight of a metal or metal oxide selected from Cs, Li, Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, La, Ce, rare earth metals, Hf, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Sn, Cd, Bi and Sb; said power composition having a specific surface area of 30 to 750 m 2 /g, a bulk density of 0.5 g/cc or more and substantially uniform size pore diameters of from 20 A to to 250 A, with pore diameters of 20 A to 45 A having a uniformity such that at least 90% of the pore volume is made up of pores of from 0.6 D to 1.4 D and pore diameters of 45 A to 250 A having a uniformity such that at least 80% of the pore volume is made of pores of from 0.6 D to 1.4 D, where D is the median pore diameter.