Patent ID: 7815870

Claim:
An ebullated bed hydroprocessing system, comprising: an ebullated bed reactor comprised of: an expanded catalyst bed comprising a porous supported catalyst as a solid phase; an upper region above the expanded catalyst bed that is devoid of the porous supported catalyst; a lower region below the expanded catalyst bed that is devoid of the porous supported catalyst; a liquid hydrocarbon phase comprised of a heavy oil feedstock within the expanded catalyst bed, the upper region, and the lower region; a colloidal or molecular catalyst having a particle size less than about 100 nm dispersed throughout the liquid hydrocarbon phase; and a gaseous phase comprised of hydrogen gas dispersed in the liquid hydrocarbon phase; mixing apparatus for intimately mixing a catalyst precursor composition with a hydrocarbon oil diluent at a temperature below which the catalyst precursor composition decomposes in order to form a diluted precursor mixture comprised of the hydrocarbon oil diluent and the catalyst precursor composition; blending apparatus positioned upstream of the ebullated bed reactor for blending the diluted precursor mixture with the heavy oil feedstock to form a conditioned feedstock in which the catalyst precursor composition is sufficiently well dispersed within the heavy oil feedstock so as to form the colloidal or molecular catalyst in situ upon heating and decomposition of the catalyst precursor composition; and heating means for heating the conditioned feedstock in order to decompose the catalyst precursor composition and form the colloidal or molecular catalyst in situ within the heavy oil feedstock.