Hydrocracking and hydroisomerization of long-chain alkanes and polyolefins over metal-promoted anion-modified transition metal oxides

A method is described for cracking a feedstock by contacting the feedstock with a metal-promoted anion-modified metal oxide catalyst in the presence of hydrogen gas. The metal oxide of the catalyst is one or more of ZrO{sub 2}, HfO{sub 2}, TiO{sub 2} and SnO{sub 2}, and the feedstock is principally chains of at least 20 carbon atoms. The metal-promoted anion-modified metal oxide catalyst contains one or more of Pt, Ni, Pd, Rh, Ir, Ru, (Mn and Fe) or mixtures of them present between about 0.2% to about 15% by weight of the catalyst. The metal-promoted anion-modified metal oxide catalyst contains one or more of SO{sub 4}, WO{sub 3}, or mixtures of them present between about 0.5% to about 20% by weight of the catalyst.