Patent ID: 8557106

Claim:
A hydrocracking process on a vacuum gasoil feedstream being selective for distillate boiling range converted products and yielding unconverted products useful as lubricants, which process comprises: providing a vacuum gasoil feedstream having a nitrogen content of not greater than about 50 wppm and a sulfur content of not greater than about 300 wppm; hydrocracking the vacuum gasoil feedstream in a high-conversion hydrocracking stage with a hydrogen-containing treat gas stream in the presence of a two-stage catalyst system under effective hydrocracking conditions sufficient to attain a conversion level of greater than 55%, so as to form a hydrocracked product; and separating the hydrocracked product into a converted product having a boiling range maximum of about 700° F. (about 371° C.) and an unconverted product having a boiling range minimum of about 700° F. (about 371° C.), the converted product having one or more of a cetane number of at least 45, a smoke point of at least 20 mm, and a sulfur content of not greater than 12 wppm, the unconverted product having one or more of a viscosity index of at least 80, a pour point of less than 5° C., and a kinematic viscosity at about 100° C. of at least 1 cSt, wherein the two-stage catalyst system comprises (i) a USY catalyst containing a Group VIII noble metal selected from platinum, palladium, and combinations thereof and (ii) a ZSM-48 catalyst containing a Group VIII noble metal selected from platinum, palladium, and combinations thereof; and wherein the vacuum gasoil feedstream is formed by: hydrotreating a crude oil portion having a sulfur content of at least about 1000 wppm and a nitrogen content of at least about 200 wppm with a hydrogen-containing treat gas stream in the presence of a hydrotreating catalyst under effective hydrotreating conditions to form a hydrotreated product; hydrocracking the hydrotreated product in a preliminary hydrocracking stage with a hydrogen-containing treat gas stream in the presence of a preliminary hydrocracking catalyst system under effective preliminary hydrocracking conditions sufficient to attain a conversion level of not more than 50%, so as to form a preliminary hydrocracked, hydrotreated product; and separating the preliminary hydrocracked, hydrotreated product into a preliminary converted product having a boiling range maximum of about 700° F. (about 371° C.) and a preliminary unconverted product having a boiling range minimum of about 700° F. (about 371° C.), such that the preliminary unconverted product is the vacuum gasoil feedstream.