Patent ID: 8241489

Claim:
A method of producing a crude product, comprising: contacting a crude feed with one or more catalysts in a fixed bed 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, one or more alkaline-earth metal salts of one or more organic acids, or mixtures thereof, the crude feed having, per gram of crude feed, a total content of alkali metal, and alkaline-earth metal, in metal salts of organic acids of at least 0.00001 grams, and at least one of the catalysts having, per gram of catalyst, at least 0.001 grams of: 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, calculated as weight of metal, or mixtures thereof; and controlling contacting conditions such that a liquid hourly space velocity of crude feed per total volume of catalyst in a contacting zone is over 10 h −1 , and the crude product has a total content of alkali metal, and alkaline-earth metal, in metal salts of organic acids of at most 90% of the content of alkali metal, and alkaline-earth metal, in metal salts of organic acids in the crude feed, wherein content of alkali metal, and alkaline-earth metal, in metal salts of organic acids is as determined by ASTM Method D1318.