Patent ID: 7279090

Claim:
An integrated process for attaining a high degree of vacuum residue conversion, comprising the steps of: a) feeding a vacuum resid oil feedstock, 90% of said feedstock boiling above 975° F., along with steam stripper bottoms from a downstream steam stripper, to a solvent deasphalter (“SDA”) using a C 4 /C 5 solvent to provide an asphaltene stream and a deasphalted oil stream; b) processing said asphaltene stream through one or more ebullated-bed reactors in series to produce an ebullated-bed reactor product stream; c) separating said ebullated-bed reactor product stream in a hot high pressure separator to provide a gas phase product and a liquid phase product, d) processing said liquid phase product through a steam stripper to produce a stripper overhead effluent and a stripper bottoms effluent; e) recycling a portion of the said stripper bottoms effluent for combining with said vacuum resid feedstock from step (a) prior to feeding combined feedstream into said SDA; and f) processing said deasphalted oil stream through a classical fixed-bed reactor for hydrotreatment or hydrocracking wherein steps a-f achieve a residue conversion of greater than 60%.