Patent ID: 8764972

Claim:
A method of producing a crude product, comprising: contacting a crude feed with a catalyst to produce a total product that includes the crude product, wherein the crude product is a liquid mixture at 25° C. and 0.101 MPa, the crude feed comprising one or more alkali metal salts of one or more organic acids and one or more alkaline-earth metal salts of one or more organic acids, and the crude feed has, per gram of crude feed, a total content of at least 0.00001 grams of alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal in metal salts of organic acids, where the catalyst is obtainable by: combining a support with one or more metals from Column 6 of the Periodic Table, one or more compounds of one or more metals from Column 6 of the Periodic Table, or mixtures thereof to produce a catalyst precursor; and producing the catalyst by heating the catalyst precursor in the presence of one or more sulfur containing compounds at a temperature below 500° C. without converting the one or more Column 6 metals to oxides; and controlling contacting conditions of the crude feed with the catalyst such that the crude product has a total content of alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal in metal salts of organic acids of at most 50% of the content of alkali metal and alkaline-earth metal in metal salts of organic acids in the crude feed.