Patent ID: 7897036

Claim:
A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones and separation zones, the process comprising: combining a heavy oil feedstock, a hydrogen containing gas, a slurry catalyst, and water in a first contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions to convert at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products, wherein water is present in an amount of 1 to 25 weight % on the weight of the heavy oil feedstock; sending a mixture comprising the upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a first separation zone, whereby the upgraded products are removed with the hydrogen containing gas from the first separation zone as a first overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst, heavier hydrocracked liquid products, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed from the first separation zone as a first non-volatile stream, and; sending the first non-volatile stream to a contacting zone other than the first contacting zone, which is maintained under hydrocracking conditions with additional hydrogen containing gas feed to convert at least a portion of the unconverted heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming additional upgraded products; sending a mixture comprising the additional upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the additional hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a separation zone other than the first separation zone, whereby volatile additional upgraded products are removed with the additional hydrogen containing gas as an overhead stream, and slurry catalyst and unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed as a second non-volatile stream.