Residue upgrading technologies according to the contaminants content | Beccari M. & Romano U.. Encyclopaedia of Hydrocarbons: Refining and petrochemicals, Volume 2, ENI, 2006

Hydrocracking is a catalytic chemical process used in petroleum refineries for converting the high-boiling constituent hydrocarbons in petroleum crude oils to more valuable lower-boiling products such as gasoline, kerosene, jet fuel and diesel oil. The process takes place in a hydrogen-rich atmosphere at elevated temperatures (260 – 425 °C) and pressures (35 – 200 bar).

Different types of hydrocracking technologies are in use for residue upgrading depending on the level of contaminants such as asphaltenes and metals present in the residues such as:

• Fixed bed hydrocracking
  • Axens - Hyvahl™fixed bed hydrotreating
  • Chevron Lummus Global - Isocracking technology
  • UOP Honeywell - Unicracking™ process
• Moving bed hydrocracking
  • Chevron Lummus Global - On-stream Catalyst Replacement (OCR) / Upflow Reactor (UFR)
  • Shell - Hycon Moving Bed Technology
• Ebullated bed / Expanded bed reactors 
  • Axens - H-Oil^® ebullated bed hydrocracking
  • Chevron Lummus Global - LC-FINING ebullating bed residue hydrocracking process (presumably based upon former Texaco's T-STAR process)
  • HTI - HCAT^® process
• Slurry-phase hydrocracking
  • Chevron Lummus Global - LC-Slurry technology
  • ENI SpA - Eni Slurry Technology (EST)
  • ExxonMobil - Microcat-RC™ technology (obsolete)
  • KBR - Veba Combi-Cracking (VCC) technology
  • PVDSA - Hydrocracking Distillation Hydrotreating (HDH Plus) technology
  • UOP Honeywell - Uniflex™ MC Residue Hydrocracking Process
    (based upon Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)'s CANMET hydrocracking process technology, acquired by UOP in 2007)

Read the detailed Hydrocracking technology review here.

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