Method of and apparatus for processing heavy hydrocarbon feeds

The present invention comprises a method for processing a heavy hydrocarbon feed including: supplying the heavy hydrocarbon feed to a heater for heating the heavy hydrocarbon feed; supplying the heated heavy hydrocarbon feed to an atmospheric fractionating tower for fractionating the heated heavy hydrocarbon feed fed to the inlet of the atmospheric fractionating tower producing light atmospheric fractions and atmospheric bottoms; supplying the atmospheric bottoms to a further heater for heating the atmospheric bottoms and producing heated atmospheric bottoms; supplying the heated atmospheric bottoms to a vacuum fractionating tower for fractionating the heated atmospheric bottoms and producing light vacuum fractions and vacuum residue; supplying the vacuum residue to a solvent deasphalting (SDA) unit for producing deasphalted oil (DAO) and asphaltenes from the vacuum residue; supplying the deasphalted oil to a deasphalted oil thermal cracker for thermally cracking the deasphalted oil and producing a thermally cracked product which is recycled only to the inlet of the atmospheric fractionating tower; and supplying the light vacuum fractions to a light vacuum fraction thermal cracker for thermally cracking the light vacuum fractions for producing a further cracked product which is recycled only to the inlet of the atmospheric fractionating tower.