In the refining of crude oil, hydroprocessing units such as hydrotreaters
and hydrocrackers are used to remove impurities such as sulfur, nitrogen,
and metals from the crude oil. They are also used to convert the feed
into valuable products such as naphtha, jet fuel, kerosene and diesel.
The current invention provides very high to total conversion of heavy
oils to products in a single high-pressure loop, using multiple reaction
stages. A hot high pressure separator is located between the first and
second reaction stages. Overhead from the separator is treated in a
distillate upgrader, which may operate in co-current or countercurrent
mode.