TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - CHEMICAL ENGINEERING - Preferred Process: The alkylation process is olefin/paraffin alkylation, or aromatic alkylation. It comprises transalkylation the alkylatable hydrocarbon. The alkylation reaction conditions include -40-250degreesC, 1-100 bar, and weight hourly space velocity of 0.1- 500/hour.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The alkylatable hydrocarbon is isobutane or benzene. The alkylating agent is butene, ethylene, propylene, 1-butene, 2-butene, or isobutene. The alkylating agent is polyalkylated aromatic compound such as diethylbenzene or di-isopropyl benzene.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Process: The catalyst providing step comprises providing a porous inorganic oxide; impregnating the porous inorganic oxide with a liquid solution containing an inorganic micropore forming directing agent which provides hydroxide ions, where the amount of liquid solution is no more than 100% of the pore volume of the inorganic oxide, and the concentration of the micropore forming directing agent in the liquid solution is 25-60 wt.%; and heating the impregnated porous inorganic oxide at elevated synthesis temperature to form a zeolite containing product.Preferred Components: The liquid solution is an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide. The catalyst includes a refractory oxide binder such as silica, alumina, silica-alumina, titania or zirconia. The zeolite Y includes platinum, palladium, iridium, ruthenium, rhodium, osmium, iron, cobalt, nickel, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, titanium, zirconium, hafnium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, copper, silver, or gold.Preferred Properties: The zeolite Y has a crystal size of not more than 50 (preferably not more than 25) nm, and a mesopore to micropore volume ratio of 0.2-0.6. The catalyst has a BET surface area of at least275 m2/g, and where the zeolite Y has a rare earth metal component with a mass ratio of rare earth metal to zeolite of at least0.04. The zeolite Y has a unit cell size of 24.6-24.9 Angstrom.Preferred Compositions: The zeolite Y has a sodium content of not more than 0.2 (preferably not more than 0.05) wt.%. The zeolite Y has a lanthanum to zeolite mass ratio of at least0.04. EXAMPLE - One part porous silica-alumina with silica/alumina ratio of 5.1 was impregnated with 1.05 parts of solution containing 45 pbw sodium hydroxide and 55 parts distilled water. The impregnated material was heated at 85 degrees C for 24 hours, washed, and dried at 120 degrees C to obtain a product containing greater than 95% zeolite Y crystals having sizes of 25-100 nm. The nanocrystalline zeolite Y was ion-exchanged with a mixture of lanthanum trichloride and ammonium nitrate solution, filtered, dried, and mixed with alumina sol. The resulting paste was dried and calcined. The calcined paste was ground and sieved to +20/-12 mesh size, of which 4.0 parts on dry basis was loaded into alkylation reactor. The BET surface area of the final catalyst was 416 m2/g. Alkylation was conducted at 400 psig and 80 degrees C with a recyclate rate of 74 parts reaction effluent/parts catalyst/hour. This sample had an olefin breakthrough of 6.2 hours and the alkylate had a RON of 100.2 before olefin breakthrough and 102.5 after 1 hour of reaction.