Patent ID: 7087777

Claim:
A process for preparing branched alcohol sulfates, comprising: converting branched olefins into said branched alcohol sulfates, said branched olefins having been obtained by a process comprising; subjecting a paraffinic wax to first conditions effective to hydrocrack and hydroisomerize said paraffinic wax and to produce an isoparaffinic composition comprising 0.5% or less quaternary aliphatic carbon atoms, said isoparaffinic composition comprising paraffins having a carbon number of from about 7 to about 35, at least a portion of said paraffins being branched paraffins comprising an average number of branches per paraffin molecule of at least 0.7 calculated over the total of branched paraffins and linear paraffins present, said branches comprising a first number of methyl branches and optionally a second number of ethyl branches; exposing said isoparaffinic composition to a dehydrogenation catalyst in an amount and under dehydrogenation conditions effective to dehydrogenate said isoparaffinic composition and to produce a branched olefin composition comprising 0.5% or less quaternary aliphatic carbon atoms.