Patent ID: 7931797

Claim:
A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones and at least one separation zone, including a first contacting zone and a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone, the process comprising: providing a hydrogen containing gas feed; providing a heavy oil feedstock; providing a slurry catalyst feed comprising an active metal catalyst having an average particle size of at least 1 micron in a hydrocarbon oil diluent, at a concentration of greater than 500 wppm of active metal catalyst to heavy oil feedstock; adding an amount of water of up to 30 wt % of the first heavy oil feedstock to the first contacting zone; combining at least a portion of the hydrogen containing gas feed, at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock, water, and at least a portion of the slurry catalyst feed in a first contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions to convert at least a portion of the first heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products; sending a first effluent stream from the first contacting zone comprising the upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a first separation zone, wherein volatile upgraded products are removed with the hydrogen containing gas as a first overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst and the unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed as a first non-volatile stream, wherein the first non-volatile stream contains less than 30% solid; collecting the first overhead stream for further processing; and collecting the first non-volatile stream for further processing.