Hydroprocessing using hydrothermally-prepared bulk multimetallic catalysts

A process for hydroprocessing a hydrocarbon feed, the process comprising contacting the feed with hydrogen in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of a bulk metal catalyst under catalytic conversion conditions to form a hydroprocessed product, the bulk metal catalyst comprising metal oxidic particles containing niobium as a Group V metal, only one Group VIB metal, and only one Group VIII metals, the bulk metal catalyst being made by:

• (i) combining in a reaction mixture one or more first compounds comprising only one Group VIII metal, one or more second compounds comprising only one Group VIB metal, and one or more third compounds comprising niobium as a Group V metal in the presence of a protic liquid, wherein the Group VIII metal to Group VIB metal molar ratio is between about 0.1 and about 1.5, and wherein the Group V metal content is at least about 0.1 mol % and less than about 10 mol %;
• and
• (ii) reacting the compounds under hydrothermal conditions to form metal oxidic particles,
• wherein a corresponding atmospheric product is obtained under identical process conditions using a corresponding atmospheric bulk metal catalyst having identical ingredients and an identical method of manufacture as the bulk metal catalyst except that the compounds were reacted at atmospheric conditions instead of hydrothermal conditions, and wherein the hydroprocessed product has (a) a lower sulfur content than the corresponding atmospheric product, due to the bulk metal catalyst having an increased hydrodesulfurization activity compared to the corresponding atmospheric bulk metal catalyst, (b) a lower nitrogen content than the corresponding atmospheric product, due to the bulk metal catalyst having an increased hydrodenitrogenation activity compared to the corresponding atmospheric bulk metal catalyst, or (c) both (a) and (b).