Patent ID: 8882991

Claim:
A process for cracking a hydrocarbon feedstock comprising: a) obtaining a hydrocarbon feedstock containing at least 1 wt % of resid fractions having boiling points of at least 500° C., wherein the feedstock includes at least one component selected from the group consisting of crude oil, atmospheric resids, contaminated condensate, gas oil distillates, tars, steam cracker tars, fuel oils, quench tower bottoms, and cycle oils; b) feeding the hydrocarbon feedstock directly to a furnace convection section to heat the feedstock; c) flashing the heated feedstock in a first flash separation vessel to create a first overhead stream and a first bottoms liquid stream; d) hydrogenating at least a portion of the first bottoms liquid stream to create a hydrogenated bottoms stream; e) flashing the hydrogenated bottoms stream in a second flash separation vessel to create a second overhead stream and a second bottoms liquid stream; and f) cracking the first overhead stream and the second overhead stream in a cracking furnace to produce a pyrolysis effluent stream.