Residual oil desulfurization in multiple zones without concommitant increase in hydrogen consumption

Claim 1

A process for effecting the desulfurization of increased amounts of a residual oil, which oil boils above about 650° F., without a concomitant increase in hydrogen consumption, which comprises: (a) hydrodesulfurizing a residual oil feed by reacting said feed with hydrogen over a hydrodesulfurization catalyst in a first reaction zone at hydrodesulfurization conditions of from about 500 to about 3000 psig pressure, about 600 to about 1000° F. temperature, about 0.2 to about 5 LHSV and about 1,000 to about 20,000 SCF/bbl. hydrogen rate, whereby a portion of the aromatics contained in said feed are converted to naphthenes and a portion of the organically combined sulfur contained in said feed is converted to hydrogen sulfide, thereby obtaining a liquid effluent having a lower sulfur content and a higher naphthene content than said residual oil feed; and (b) desulfurizing an additional amount of said residual oil by combining said additional amount with the effluent of step (a) in an amount of from about 0.5 to about 4 bbl. of effluent of step (a) per bbl. of additional residue oil feed and reacting the resultant mixture in a second reaction zone over a catalyst comprising at least one metallic component selected from Groups VIB and VIII of the Periodic Table deposited on an acidic support selected from the group consisting of refractory inorganic oxides, crystalline aluminosilicate zeolites and combinations thereof, at conditions such that naphthenes contained in the mixture are dehydrogenated and the hydrogen so released is utilized to convert organically combined sulfur contained in said mixture to hydrogen sulfide, wherein said conditions comprise about 500 to about 3,000 psig pressure, about 700 to about 1200° F. temperature and about 0.2 to about 5 LHSV and wherein the effluent of step (b) has the same sulfur level as the effluent of step (a).