Patent ID: 8663456

Claim:
A process for cracking a heavy hydrocarbon feed in a steam cracker having a convection section and a radiant section, the process comprising: (a) passing the heavy hydrocarbon feed to a first zone of a vaporization unit and separating the feed into a first vapor stream and a first liquid stream in the first zone; (b) passing the first liquid stream to a second zone of the vaporization unit and contacting the first liquid stream with counter-current steam in the second zone of the vaporization unit so that the first liquid stream intimately mixes with the steam to produce a second vapor stream and a second liquid stream; (c) steam-cracking the first vapor stream and the second vapor stream in the radiant section of the steam cracker to produce a cracked effluent; (d) thermally cracking the second liquid stream to produce a coker effluent and coke; (e) separating the coker effluent into a coker gas and a coker liquid; (f) hydroprocessing the coker liquid to produce a hydroprocessed product; (g) separating the hydroprocessed product into a gaseous hydroprocessed product and a liquid hydroprocessed product; (h) passing the liquid hydroprocessed product to the vaporization unit.