Highly attrition resistant mesoporous catalytic cracking catalysts

A catalytic cracking catalyst for converting a hydrocarbon feedstock at elevated temperature in the substantial absence of hydrogen, into lower average molecular weight, lower boiling hydrocarbon transportation fuel which comprises a crystalline aluminosilicate zeolite having a silica:alumina mole ratio greater than 2:1, and uniform pore diameters ranging from about 4 Angstroms to about 15 Angstroms in diameter, in concentration ranging from about 30 percent to about 60 percent, based on the total weight of the catalyst, a matrix comprised of silica and clay within which the crystalline aluminosilicate zeolite is dispersed, said matrix being characterized as porous and the pores as having a bimodal pore size distribution, as measured by mercury porosimetry, a first mode wherein from about 80 percent to about 90 percent of the pore volume measured between 45 Angstroms and 2000 Angstroms is in pores ranging from about 160 Angstroms in diameter to about 400 Angstroms in diameter, and a second mode wherein from about 5 percent to about 10 percent of the pores are of diameter ranging above about 100 Angstroms to about 160 Angstroms, and the attrition-resistance of the catalyst, as measured by the Davison Index ranges from about 1 to about 8,

• wherein the silica matrix portion of said catalyst is prepared from a silica sol made via an ion-exchanged process, and an acidic silica sol prepared by the reaction of sodium silicate, an acid and an aluminum salt, and an aluminum salt of a mineral acid, and wherein the sol is not converted to a gel during catalyst preparation.