Patent ID: 7491313

Claim:
A method of hydroprocessing a heavy hydrocarbon oil, comprising: (a) contacting in a first hydroprocessing step the heavy hydrocarbon oil with hydrogen in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of a first catalyst having activity for hydrocracking asphaltenes in the heavy hydrocarbon oil in order to produce a hydroprocessed heavy hydrocarbon oil having fewer asphaltenes than the heavy hydrocarbon feed, and (b) contacting the hydroprocessed heavy hydrocarbon oil with hydrogen in the presence of a second, independently selected catalyst having activity for hydrodesulfurizing the hydroprocessed heavy hydrocarbon feed; wherein (i) the second catalyst is a supported catalyst, with the support containing about 2 wt. % to about 40 wt. % silica based on the total weight of the support, (ii) the second catalyst is characterized by a pore size distribution having a first peak with a peak position in the range of about 40 Å diameter to about 200 Å diameter, with the first peak representing pores that together contain about 35% to about 90% of the total pore volume of the catalyst, and (iii) the pores of the first peak within a diameter range of about ±20 Å from the peak position contain at least about 50% of the pore volume in the diameter range of about 40 to about 200 Å.