Patent ID: 7479217

Claim:
A process for treating a hydrocarbon feed comprising: a first upstream process for hydrocarbon hydroconversion comprising passing a hydrocarbon feed into at least one reaction chamber, conducting at least one reaction inside at least one chamber in the presence of at least one solid catalytic phase, at least one hydrocarbon phase and at least one hydrogen-containing gaseous phase to obtain at least one hydroconverted gaseous stream comprising hydrocarbons heavier than methane, said at least one reaction being conducted in a “slurry” and/or an ebullated bed mode, a second upstream process comprising: passing said at least one hydroconverted gaseous stream comprising hydrocarbons heavier than methane to a first pre-forming step for partial conversion of hydrocarbons to hydrogen and for at least partial conversion of hydrocarbons heavier than methane into methane, and passing resultant gaseous stream from said first pre-reforming step to a steam reforming step for conversion of resultant methane from the pre-reforming step into hydrogen, and at least partially recycling hydrogen to said first upstream process.