Patent ID: 8236169

Claim:
A process for hydroprocessing a heavy oil feedstock, the process employing a plurality of contacting zones operating in parallel mode and at least a separation zone, including a first contacting zone and at least a second contacting zone, the process comprising: providing a hydrogen containing gas feed; providing a heavy oil feedstock; providing an additive material selected from the group consisting of inhibitor additives, anti-foam agents, stabilizers, metal scavengers, metal contaminant removers, metal passivators, sacrificial materials, and mixtures thereof, in an amount of less than 1 wt. % of the heavy oil feedstock; providing a slurry catalyst comprising an active metal catalyst having an average particle size of at least 1 micron in a hydrocarbon oil diluent; combining at least a portion of the hydrogen containing gas feed, at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock, at least a portion of the additive material and at least a portion of the slurry catalyst in the first contacting zone and the second contacting zone under hydrocracking conditions to convert at least a portion of the heavy oil feedstock to lower boiling hydrocarbons, forming upgraded products and additional upgraded products; sending a first effluent stream from the first contacting zone comprising the upgraded products and a second effluent stream from the second contacting zone comprising the additional upgraded products, the slurry catalyst, the hydrogen containing gas, and unconverted heavy oil feedstock to a first separation zone, wherein volatile upgraded products are removed with the hydrogen containing gas as a first overhead stream, and the slurry catalyst and unconverted heavy oil feedstock are removed as a first non-volatile stream, wherein the first non-volatile stream contains less than 30% solid; collecting the first overhead stream for further processing; and collecting the first non-volatile stream for further processing.