Patent ID: 6924407

Claim:
In a method of conducting a heterogeneous chemical reaction including the steps of forming a reactant mixture comprising one or more heterogeneous reactant(s) in a reactor, and causing said reactant(s) to react in the presence of a solid catalyst to yield a reaction mixture comprising said reactants and the reaction products of the reaction, the improvement which comprises using as said solid catalyst a macroporous solid catalyst having a surface area of from about 50-400 m 2 /g, and an average pore size of from about 70-150 Å, and carrying out said reaction under conditions comprising a temperature of from about 0.9-1.3 T c of the reactant mixture and a pressure of from about 0.9-2.5 P c of the reactant mixture, said reactant mixture being formed by continuously introducing said reactant(s) into said reactor including a co-solvent or diluent under substantially steady state reactor conditions, said catalyst being susceptible to deactivation owing to coke laydown during the course of said reaction, said method including the step of regenerating said catalyst by terminating said introduction of at least one of said reactant(s) prior to a time when said solid catalyst is significantly deactivated owing to coke laydown, elevating the pressure and/or lowering the temperature within said reactor to remove at least a portion of any coke on the catalyst, resuming introduction of said reactant(s) into said reactor and reestablishing said substantially steady state conditions.