ABSTRACT
Residue hydroconversion thermally cracks heavy feed materials into lighter products, while at the same time hydrotreating the products. Although the hydroprocessing catalysts used for residue hydroconversion are mainly supported sulfided base metal catalysts, accessibility and attrition resistance are important attributes. Residue hydroconversion combines thermal conversion and hydrotreating into one process. The purpose of residue hydroconversion is to thermally crack heavy feed materials into lighter products, while at the same time hydrotreating the products. The feed materials for residue hydroconversion, atmospheric and vacuum residues, are challenging to convert by catalytic processes due to catalyst deactivation and this is also true for catalytic hydrotreating in residue hydroconversion. The fresh hydrogen feed and the residue feed is preheated either together or separately. The catalyst type that is employed in residue hydroconversion can be classified as a sulfided metal catalyst and it is of the same general type employed for hydrotreating.
