Abstract: After the commissioning of two newly constructed slurry bed residue hydrotreating units in an integrated refining and chemical project, the vacuum residue from two atmospheric and vacuum distillation units was entirely processed in the slurry bed units. By comparing key performance indicators such as feedstock properties, product yield, catalyst consumption, and hydrogen consumption of the two slurry bed units throughout 2022, it was concluded that there were certain deviations between the actual operation and the design values. Additionally, under high-load operating conditions, issues such as fluctuations in gas oil product quality, excessive load on slurry fractionation, high pressure drop in the vacuum column, and pipeline coking and clogging were observed.These problems were analyzed and the recommendations and strategies were proposed to address the practical operational challenges of slurry bed residue hydrotreating units.

Key words: slurry bed, vacuum residue, high-load bottleneck, vacuum column, pressure drop, slurry fractionation