Mesoporous aluminum oxide, preparation and use thereof

A process for treating organic compounds which comprises:

• a) providing a mesoporous aluminum oxide comprising one X-ray diffraction peak where 2θ is between about 0.3° to about 3.5°, wherein mesopores in said composition range from about 1.5 nm to about 20 nm in diameter and the said mesopores randomly interconnected, and have a pore volume ranging from about 0.3 cm3/g to about 2.5 cm3/g, wherein the mesoporous structure has optionally incorporated therewith at least about 0.02% by weight of at least one catalytically and/or chemically active heteroatom selected from the group consisting of Si, Ti, V, Cr, Zn, Fe, Sn, Mo, Ga, Ni, Co, In, Zr, Mn, Cu, Mg, Pd, Ru, Pt, W and combinations thereof or zeolites,
• wherein the mesoporous aluminum oxide is provided by
• i. dissolving at least one inorganic source of aluminum oxide in a solvent to obtain a mixture;
• ii. adding at least one non-surfactant pore forming agent to the mixture, said pore forming agent being capable of hydrogen bonding without forming miscelles;
• iii. adding at least one alkali to the mixture;
• iv. drying the mixture at a temperature ranging from about 40° C. to about 140° C. for a period of time ranging from about 1 hour to about 48 hours to obtain a dried gel;
• and,
• v. removing the pore-forming agent from the dried gel to obtain a powder comprising the mesoporous aluminum oxide;
• b) contacting feed under reaction conditions with said catalyst wherein the treating process is selected from the group consisting of catalytic reforming, steam reforming, fluid catalytic cracking, hydrotreating, CCR reduction, RCR reduction, isomerization, hydration, dehydration, hydrogenation, dehydrogenation, denitrogenation, demetallation, desulfurization, sulfur recovery including the Claus process, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, ammoxidation, amination, Diels-Alder synthesis and adsorption.