HEAVY FEED HYDROPROCESSING USING A MIXTURE OF CATALYSTS

The present invention pertains to a process for the hydroprocessing of heavy hydrocarbon feeds, preferably in an ebullating bed process, by contacting the feed with a mixture of two hydroprocessing catalysts meeting specified pore size distribution requirements. More in particular, catalyst I has at least 50% of its total pore volume in pores with a diameter of at least 20 nm (200 Å), and 10-30% of the total pore volume in pores with a diameter of at least 200 nm (2000 Å), while catalyst II has at least 75% of the total pore volume in pores with a diameter of 10-120 nm (1001200 Å), 0-2% of the total pore volume in pores with a diameter of at least 400 nm (4000 Å), and 0-1 % of the total pore volume in pores with a diameter of at least 1000 nm (10000 Å). The process combines high contaminant removal with high conversion, low sediment formation, and high process flexibility.