Patent ID: 8277637

Claim:
A method for processing hydrocarbons comprising: distilling a hydrocarbon comprising crude oil, oil shales, oil sands, tars, bitumens, or any combination thereof within an atmospheric distillation unit to provide an atmospheric distillation bottoms; distilling a first portion of the atmospheric distillation bottoms within a vacuum distillation unit to provide a vacuum gas oil and a vacuum distillation bottoms; combining a second portion of the atmospheric distillation bottoms and a first portion of the vacuum distillation bottoms with one or more solvents to provide a first mixture comprising the one or more solvents, one or more heavy deasphalted oils, one or more light deasphalted oils, and one or more asphaltenes; selectively separating the one or more asphaltenes from the first mixture to provide a second mixture comprising the one or more solvents, the one or more heavy deasphalted oils, and the one or more light deasphalted oils; and selectively separating the one or more heavy deasphalted oils from the second mixture to provide a third mixture comprising the solvents and the one or more light deasphalted oils; selectively separating the one or more solvents from the third mixture to recover the one or more light deasphalted oils; cracking at least a portion of the separated heavy deasphalted oils using a fluidized catalytic cracker to provide one or more lighter hydrocarbon products; and combining at least a portion of the vacuum gas oil, at least a portion of the one or more lighter hydrocarbon products, and at least a portion of the one or more light deasphalted oils to provide a synthetic crude oil.