Patent ID: 8506794

Claim:
A method of producing a crude product, comprising: contacting a crude feed with one or more catalysts at a first temperature followed by contacting at a second temperature to produce a total product that includes the crude product, wherein the crude product is a liquid mixture at 25 ° C. at 0.101 MPa, the crude feed having a TAN of at least 0.3 and the crude feed having a C 5 asphaltenes content of at least 0.04 grams of C 5 asphaltenes per gram of crude feed; and controlling contacting conditions such that the first contacting temperature is at least 30 ° C. lower than the second contacting temperature, and the crude product has a TAN of at most 90% relative to the TAN of the crude feed, wherein TAN is as determined by ASTM Method D664 and the C 5 asphaltenes content in the crude product is reduced relative to the C 5 asphaltenes content of the crude feed as determined by ASTM Method D2007.