Patent ID: 8778173

Claim:
A process for producing a stable desulfurized hydrocarbon product stream, comprising: a) contacting a sulfur-containing heavy oils feedstream with an API gravity of less than about 20 with a first alkali metal reagent stream, and a first aromatic stability stream containing at least 50 wt % aromatic hydrocarbons in a first reaction zone, thereby producing a desulfurized reaction stream comprised of desulfurized hydrocarbon compounds, spent alkali metal compounds, and hydrogen; b) conducting the desulfurized reaction stream to a hydrocarbon product separator; c) obtaining an aqueous spent alkali metal product stream from the hydrocarbon product separator; d) filtering the aqueous spent alkali metal product stream to remove coke, precipitated asphaltenes, iron, vanadium and nickel from the spent alkali metal product stream; and e) obtaining a desulfurized hydrocarbon product ream from the hydrocarbon product separator; wherein less than 3 wt % of the asphaltenes present in the heavy oil feedstream precipitate out in the first reaction zone, and the desulfurized hydrocarbon product stream has a sulfur content by wt % that is less than 40% of the sulfur content by wt % of the heavy oils feedstream, and wherein the first aromatic stability stream comprises a light catalytic cycle oil, a heavy catalytic cycle oil, or a catalytic bottoms oil from a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (FCCU).