Hydrotreatment upflow reactors with high hydrogen-hydrocarbon liquid contact surface and improved hydrogenation capacity

A hydrocarbon hydrotreatment process utilizing an upflow type reactor in bubbling regime, said process comprising:

• a step of reacting a hydrocarbon liquid with hydrogen or with a hydrogen-containing gas in said upflow reactor,
• wherein said upflow reactor comprises:
• a column delimited by a cap both at the bottom and at the top;
• a system for feeding the hydrocarbon liquid;
• a system for feeding the hydrogen or hydrogen-containing gas;
• means for distributing either said hydrogen or said hydrogen-containing gas, said distribution means comprising a plurality of orifices,
• wherein said step of reacting comprises:
• feeding said distribution means exclusively with said hydrogen or with said hydrogen-containing gas,
• wherein said distribution means is placed at a lower part of said reactor and is immersed in said hydrocarbon liquid,
• introducing either the hydrogen or the hydrogen-containing gas into the plurality of orifices of said distribution means to thereby introduce either the hydrogen or the hydrogen-containing gas into said reactor and form, in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst, a gas-reaction liquid mixture which rises along said reactor and exits at the upper cap,
• wherein, in said process, the flow of hydrogen, or of the hydrogen-containing gas, fed in said reactor, is splitted by means of said distribution means, into such a number of entry points as to result in an entry point density per m2 of horizontal section of said reactor between 64 and 2500, a number of said orifices coinciding with said number of entry points,
• said hydrogen, or said hydrogen-containing gas, being fed to said reactor at a surface velocity:
• not exceeding 2.5 cm/s if said process uses a slurry-type catalyst obtained by introducing oil-soluble transition metal compounds into the reaction, and
• not exceeding 5.5 cm/s if said process uses a supported type catalyst.