Steam cracking of hydrocarbons is a non-catalytic petrochemical process that is widely used to produce olefins such as ethylene, propylene, butenes, butadiene, and aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes.  Typically, a mixture of a hydrocarbon feed such as ethane, propane, naphtha, gas oil, or other hydrocarbon fractions and steam is cracked in a steam cracker.  Steam dilutes the hydrocarbon feed and reduces coking.  Steam cracker is also called pyrolysis furnace, cracking furnace, cracker, or cracking heater.  A steam cracker has a convection section and a radiant section.  Preheating is accomplished in the convection section, while cracking reaction occurs in the radiant section.  A mixture of steam and the hydrocarbon feed is typically preheated in convection tubes (coils) to a temperature of from about 900 to about 1,000° F. (about 482 to about 538° C.) in the convection section, and then passed to radiant tubes located in the radiant section.  In the radiant section, hydrocarbons and the steam are quickly heated to a hydrocarbon cracking temperature in the range of from about 1,450 to about 1,550° F. (about 788 to about 843° C.).  Typically the cracking reaction occurs at a pressure in the range of from about 10 to about 30 psig.  Steam cracking is accomplished without the aid of any catalyst. 
After cracking in the radiant section, the effluent from the steam cracker contains gaseous hydrocarbons of great variety, e.g., from one to thirty-five carbon atoms per molecule.  These gaseous hydrocarbons can be saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated, and can be aliphatic, alicyclics, or aromatic.  The cracked effluent also contains significant amount of molecular hydrogen.  The cracked effluent is generally further processed to produce various products such as hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, mixed C4 hydrocarbons, pyrolysis gasoline, and pyrolysis fuel oil. 
Conventional steam cracking systems have been effective for cracking gas feeds (e.g., ethane, propane) or high-quality liquid feeds that contain mostly light volatile hydrocarbons (e.g., gas oil, naphtha).  Hydrocarbon feeds containing heavy components such as crude oil or atmospheric resid cannot be cracked using a pyrolysis furnace economically, because such feeds contain high molecular weight, non-volatile, heavy components, which tend to form coke too quickly in the convection section of the pyrolysis furnace. 
Efforts have been directed to develop processes to use hydrocarbon feeds containing heavy components in steam crackers due to their availability and lower costs as compared to high-quality liquid feeds.  For example, U.S. Pat.  No.  3,617,493 discloses an external vaporization drum for crude oil feed and a first flash to remove naphtha as a vapor and a second flash to remove volatiles with a boiling point between 450 to 1100° F. (232 to 593° C.).  The vapors are cracked in a pyrolysis furnace into olefins and the separated liquids from the two flash tanks are removed, stripped with steam, and used as fuel. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  3,487,006 teaches a process for integrating crude fractionation facilities with the production of petrochemical products wherein light distillates are initially separated from a crude in a first fractionator.  The light-distillate-free crude is mixed with steam and passed through the convection section of a pyrolysis heater and introduced into a gas oil tower.  The gas oil overhead from the gas oil tower is introduced, without condensation, into the radiant heating section of the pyrolysis heater to effect the cracking thereof to desired petrochemical products.  U.S. Pat.  No.  3,487,006 also teaches that the residuum from the gas oil tower may be further treated, e.g., by coking, to produce lighter products. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  3,898,299 teaches a process for producing gaseous olefins from an atmospheric petroleum residue feedstock.  The process comprises: (a) contacting the petroleum residue feedstock in a hydrogenation zone with a hydrogenation catalyst at a temperature in the range 50 to 500° C., a pressure in the range 50 to 5,000 psig, and a liquid hourly space velocity in the range 0.1 to 5.0 to effect hydrogenation of aromatic hydrocarbons; (b) separating from the resulting hydrogenated atmospheric petroleum residue feedstock a gaseous phase containing hydrogen and a liquid phase containing hydrocarbons; (c) recycling at least a portion of the gaseous phase containing hydrogen to the hydrogenation zone; (d) separating the liquid phase containing hydrocarbons into a distillate fraction having a boiling range below 650° C. and a residue fraction having a boiling range above that of the distillate fraction; (e) subjecting the distillate fraction in the presence of steam to thermal cracking in a pyrolysis zone under conditions effecting conversion of at least a portion of the liquid phase to gaseous olefins; and (f) recovering the normally gaseous olefins from the pyrolysis zone effluent. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  7,374,664 discloses a method for utilizing whole crude oil as a feedstock for the pyrolysis furnace of an olefin production plant.  The feedstock is subjected to vaporization conditions until substantially vaporized with minimal mild cracking but leaving some remaining liquid from the feedstock, the vapors thus formed being subjected to severe cracking in the radiant section of the furnace, and the remaining liquid from the feedstock being mixed with at least one quenching oil to lower the temperature of the remaining liquid. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  7,404,889 discloses a method for thermally cracking a hydrocarbon feed wherein the feed is first processed in an atmospheric thermal distillation step to form a light gasoline, a naphtha fraction, a middle distillate fraction, and an atmospheric residuum.  The mixture of the light gasoline and the residuum is vaporized at least in part in a vaporization step, and the vaporized product of the vaporization step is thermally cracked in the presence of steam.  The naphtha fraction and middle distillate fraction are not cracked.  Middle distillates typically include heating oil, jet fuel, diesel fuel, and kerosene. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  7,550,642 discloses a method for processing a liquid crude and/or natural gas condensate feed comprising subjecting the feed to a vaporization step to form a vaporous product and a liquid product, subjecting the vaporous product to thermal cracking, and subjecting the liquid product to crude oil refinery processing. 
U.S. Pat.  No.  7,138,047 teaches a process for cracking a heavy hydrocarbon feedstock containing non-volatile hydrocarbons, comprising: heating the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock, mixing the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock with a fluid and/or a primary dilution steam stream to form a mixture, flashing the mixture to form a vapor phase and a liquid phase, and varying the amount of the fluid and/or the primary dilution steam stream mixed with the heavy hydrocarbon feedstock in accordance with at least one selected operating parameter of the process, such as the temperature of the flash stream before entering the flash drum. 
Processes taught by U.S. Pat.  Nos.  7,404,889, 7,550,642, and 7,138,047 all have the disadvantage of generating a residual oil by-product, which has to be sold or processed elsewhere. 
There remains a need to develop efficient processes that can utilize a heavy hydrocarbon feed such as a heavy crude oil to produce olefins and other petrochemical compounds in high yields.