Catalyzed alkylation, alkylation catalysts, and methods of making alkylation catalysts

A solid-acid alkylation catalyst, comprising:

• a zeolite structure comprising sodalite cages and supercages, a Si/Al molar ratio of 20 or less, less than 0.5 weight percent alkali metals, rare earth elements in the range of 10 to 35 wt %;
• and
• characterizable by a Catalyst Lifetime of 2 or greater where the Catalyst Lifetime parameter is defined as the catalyst age when olefin conversion falls below 90% using a test reaction where the solid-acid catalyst is loaded in a fixed-bed reactor such that the dT/dP>10 (diameter of tube to diameter of catalyst particles) and L/dP>50 (length of catalyst bed to diameter of catalyst particles) and exposed to a flow comprising a feed of 10:1 molar ratio of isobutane:n-butenes at 60° C. and 300 psig with a recycle ratio (R=volumetric flow rate of recycle stream/volumetric flow rate of feed stream) of 50, wherein the n-butenes comprise the olefin, where VS/VC is 7 (the ratio of system volume to catalyst volume), without regeneration of the solid-acid alkylation catalyst, and wherein a product of the test reaction has a RON of at least 92.