TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - Preferred Components: In (M1), (p2) contains n-paraffin in an amount of at least 80 (preferably 90, especially 92) wt.%. The ratio of end-chain monomethyl branching to internal branching of the monomethyl branched paraffins is at least about 1:1 (preferably 2:1).Preferred Method: (M1) further involves:(ia) forming an alkylaromatic product from at least a portion of (p2);(iia) sulfonating at least a portion of the alkylaromatic product to form an alkylaromatic sulfonate product (preferably alkylbenzene sulfonate having biodegradability of at least 90%, as determined by ASTM D2667-95(2001), a Kraft temperature of at most 40 degrees C, and a loss of alkylaromatic sulfonate product as surfactant in hard water of at least 40%); and(iiia) removing oxygenates from (p2) by passing (p2) over at least one of an alumina, silica or alumina-silica molecular sieve adsorbent such that (p2) contains oxygenates (less than 20 ppm).The alkylaromatic sulfonate product has at least one of a biodegradability of at least 90% as determined by ASTM D2667-95(2001), a Kraft temperature of at most 50 degrees C, and a loss of alkylaromatic sulfonate product as surfactant in hard water of at least 40%. In (M1) and (M2), the converting step involves introducing a synthesis gas feed containing nitrogen (10-60 vol.%) to a Fischer-Tropsch reactor.The step (iii) involves:(ib) separating a fraction containing the non-linear branched paraffin isomer (at least 20 wt.%); and(iib) separating at least one monomethyl branched paraffin isomer from (p1).(M2) further involves hydrotreating hydrotreated hydrocarbon products having an initial monomethyl branched paraffin (at least 2 wt.% of (p2)) without employing non-distillation separation techniques; isolating 8-24C (preferably 10-14C) hydrocarbon products from (p1) (where the initial n-paraffin content is the initial n-paraffin content of 8-24C hydrocarbon products); the steps (ia), (iia); (iiia) removing oxygenates from (p2) by passing (p2) over at least one of an alumina, silica or alumina-silica molecular sieve adsorbent such that (p2) contains oxygenates (less than 20, preferably 10 ppm).The step (iib) involves separating a monomethyl fraction containing the at least one monomethyl branched paraffin isomer (at least 20 wt.%); forming an alkylaromatic product from the monomethyl fraction; the step (iia) (where the alkylaromatic sulfonate product has at least one of a biodegradability of at least 90% as determined by ASTM D2667-95(2001), a Kraft temperature of at most 50 degrees C or a loss of alkylaromatic sulfonate product as surfactant in hard water of at most 50%); the step (iiia).In the step (iib), monomethyl branched paraffins (at least 40 or 50, preferably at least 67 wt.%) are end-chain monomethyl branched paraffins. In (M2), the isolating step is performed before the step (iii) (where the 8-24C hydrocarbon has an initial n-paraffin content greater than 92 wt.% and an initial monomethyl branched paraffin content of at least 2 wt.%).The step (iiia) is carried out after the hydrotreating step and where (p2) contains oxygenates (50-500 ppm) prior to the removal of oxygenate (preferably predominantly non-alcohol oxygenates). The oxygenates are removed by adsorption at least 20 degrees C.