Patent ID: 7390398

Claim:
A process for the hydroconversion of heavy oils, said process employing at least two upflow reactors in series with a separator in between each reactor, said process comprising the following steps: (a) combining a heated heavy oil feed, an active slurry catalyst composition and a hydrogen-containing gas to form a mixture; (b) passing the mixture of step (a) to the bottom of the first upflow reactor, which is maintained at hydroprocessing conditions, including elevated temperature and pressure; (c) removing a vapor stream comprising products and hydrogen, unconverted material and slurry catalyst from the top of the first reactor and passing it to a first separator; (d) in the first separator, removing the products and hydrogen overhead as vapor to further processing and unconverted material and slurry catalyst as a liquid bottoms stream; (e) combining the bottoms of step (d) with additional feed oil resulting in an intermediate mixture; (f) passing the intermediate mixture of step (e) to the bottom of the second upflow reactor, which is maintained at hydroprocessing conditions, including elevated temperature and pressure; (g) removing a vapor stream comprising products and hydrogen, unconverted material and slurry catalyst from the top of the second reactor and passing it to a second separator; (h) in the second separator, removing the products and hydrogen overhead as vapor to further processing and passing the liquid bottoms stream, comprising unconverted material and slurry catalyst, to further processing.