Hydrotreatment process

A process for the hydrotreating of a hydrocarbon fuel comprising the steps:

• (a) forming a feedstock by combining a hydrocarbon fuel containing renewable organic material with a hydrogen stream;
• (b) conducting the feedstock of step (a) to a hydrotreating stage by contacting said feedstock with at least one fixed bed of hydrotreating catalyst;
• (c) passing the effluent from the at least one fixed bed of hydrotreating catalyst of step (b) to a hot separator and withdrawing from the hot separator an overhead fraction and a bottoms fraction;
• (d) passing the overhead fraction of step (c) to a catalytic water gas shift stage;
• (e) passing an effluent from step (d) to a cold separator and withdrawing from the cold separator a gaseous overhead fraction in the form of a hydrogen-rich recycle gas stream;
• (f) passing the gaseous overhead fraction of step (e) to a hydrogen sulphide recovery unit in which a solvent is contacted with said gaseous stream and withdrawing from said recovery unit a gaseous stream with reduced content of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide, and withdrawing from said recovery unit a solvent containing hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide;
• (g) returning the gaseous stream with reduced content of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide of step (f) to step (a),
• or
• returning a portion of the gaseous stream with reduced content of hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide of step (f) to step (a) by dividing said gaseous stream into at least two streams and returning at least one of these streams to step (a) and at least one of these streams to step (d).