Patent ID: 8632673

Claim:
A continuous process for prolonging the useful life of hydro-demetallization (HDM) catalyst and hydro-desulfurization (HDS) catalyst in an HDM/HDS unit comprising the steps of: feeding sour crude feed to an HDM section to remove contaminants, thereby creating an HDS feed stream, wherein the HDM section comprises a primary HDM reactor and a secondary HDM reactor, the primary HDM reactor and the secondary HDM reactor being configured in a permutable fashion to create the HDS feed stream; and feeding the HDS feed stream to an HDS section such that at least a portion of the sulfur components within the HDS feed stream are removed, creating a product stream, wherein the HDS section comprises a primary HDS reactor and a secondary HDS reactor, the primary HDS reactor and the secondary HDS reactor being fixed bed reactors and configured in a permutable fashion, such that the product stream contains between 0.1 wt % and 1.0 wt % of total sulfur content, wherein the primary HDM reactor, the secondary HDM reactor, the primary HDS reactor, and the secondary HDS reactor are configured in the permutable fashion in relation to one another, such that an operation of the primary HDM reactor, the secondary HDM reactor, the primary HDS reactor, and the secondary HDS reactor maintains a weighted average bed temperature of each reactor within a predetermined limit, the method further comprising separating a light fraction from the sour crude feed prior to feeding the sour crude feed to the HDM section, wherein the light fraction comprises a hydrocarbon having a maximum boiling point less than or equal to about 210° C.; and combining the light fraction with the product stream.