Process for producing porous refractory inorganic oxide products

Claim 1

A process for producing a catalyst or catalyst carrier, which comprises: shaping a mixture comprising at least one inorganic member selected from the group consisting of alumina hydrate and mixtures of alumina hydrate with other refractory inorganic oxide, and from about 20 to 80 wt.%, based on the total oxide content of said mixture, of carbon black, wherein said carbon black aids in the formation of controlled pores in the catalyst or catalyst carrier whereby a shaped product is obtained; drying the shaped product without sintering; and firing the dried shaped product in an oxygen-containing gas flow, wherein the carbon black is burned off and a porous refractory inorganic oxide catalyst or catalyst carrier containing alumina is formed having a specific surface area ranging from 30 to 350 m 2 /g and a total pore capacity of pores between 37.5 Å and 75,000 Å in radius ranging from 0.6 to 1.5 cc/g wherein the pore capacity of pores between 37.5 Å and 500 Å in radius is 90% or more of the total pore capacity, said catalyst or catalyst carrier also having two peak pore distributions, one being between 40 Å and 100 Å in radius and the other being between 100 Å and 500 Å in radius with a pore capacity of pores between 37.5 Å and 100 Å in radius of 0.45 cc/g or more and a pore capacity of pores between 100 Å and 500 Å in radius of 0.1 cc/g or more.