Abstract: The new process technology was proposed to remove the metal contaminants from asphaltene molecules and to convert them into light components based on the studies of morphology and reaction mechanism of asphaltene molecules, and the special catalyst with high activity was developed to upgrade asphaltene molecules. Residue upgrading to maximize asphaltene conversion technology（RMX）with high pressure bubble slurry reactor and high active catalyst was developed to convert inferior residue into light distillates yields over 95%, asphaltene molecules upgrading rate over 90% and metal removal rate over 99%. RMX was combined with fixed-bed hydroprocessing and fluid catalytic cracking to process vacuum residue to produce 33.13 percentage points more light transport fuel or chemical feedstocks than delayed coking process. RMX can be chosen to transform a refinery into a chemical complex and produce high profit products.

Key words: vacuum residue, asphaltene, hydrothermal conversion, slurry, residue upgrading