Abstract: In some refining enterprises, using delayed coking to process heavy crude directly becomes the first choice of processing inferior crude. The features of heavy crude delayed coking are introduced in this paper, and the delayed coking processes of processing heavy crude and conventional vacuum residue (VR) are compared from the aspects of corrosion type, product distribution, operation of heating furnace and coke drum, as well as startup procedure. It can be seen that in VR delayed coking, high temperature sulfur corrosion and low temperature H2S corrosion are the main corrosion types; for heavy crude delayed coking, naphthenic acid corrosion is the dominant one. Under the same recycle ratio, in heavy crude delayed coking the total liquid yield is higher, especially middle distillate; yet for VR delayed coking, the yields of coke and rich gas are higher, total liquid yield is relatively lower. The coking tendency in heating furnace of heavy crude delayed coking is much lower than that of VR delayed coking, besides, the gas linear velocity in coke drum of the former is also slightly lower than that of the latter.