Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation
Research Article  ·  Published: 30 September 2025
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Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2025: 15-21
Research Article Open Access

Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation

1 LUKOIL Nerftohim Burgas, Burgas 8010, Bulgaria
2 Section Bioinformatics and Mathematical Modelling, Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering-Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria
* Corresponding Author: Dicho Stratiev, [email protected]
Volume 1, Issue 1

Article Information

Abstract

The ebulled bed hydrocracking technology of petroleum residues, called H-Oil, was invented in the 1950s. The first patent was issued in 1961. A demonstration unit was started up in 1963, and the first large-scale commercial unit was started up in 1968. There are currently 21 vacuum residue hydrocracking units operating worldwide using the ebulled bed reactor technology. Since 2015, the ebulated bed vacuum residue (VR) hydrocracking has been operated at the LUKOIL Neftohim Burgas (LNB) refinery. Performance of LNB ebullated bed vacuum residue H-Oil hydrocracker for a period of 10 years during processing 39 different vacuum residues at reactor temperatures between 408 and 434°C, and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) between 0.12 and 0.22 h-1 is discussed in this study. The feasible co-processing of renewable feedstocks in the H-Oil hydrocracker is also outlined.

Graphical Abstract

Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation

Keywords

hydrocracking vacuum residue conversion sedimentation co-processing

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Funding

This work was supported without any funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

References

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Cite This Article

APA Style
Stratiev, D. (2025). Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation. Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels, 1(1), 15–21. https://doi.org/10.62762/JCERF.2025.759076
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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Stratiev, Dicho
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/09/30
TI  - Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation
JO  - Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels
T2  - Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels
JF  - Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels
VL  - 1
IS  - 1
SP  - 15
EP  - 21
DO  - 10.62762/JCERF.2025.759076
UR  - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/JCERF.2025.759076
KW  - hydrocracking
KW  - vacuum residue
KW  - conversion
KW  - sedimentation
KW  - co-processing
AB  - The ebulled bed hydrocracking technology of petroleum residues, called H-Oil, was invented in the 1950s. The first patent was issued in 1961. A demonstration unit was started up in 1963, and the first large-scale commercial unit was started up in 1968. There are currently 21 vacuum residue hydrocracking units operating worldwide using the ebulled bed reactor technology. Since 2015, the ebulated bed vacuum residue (VR) hydrocracking has been operated at the LUKOIL Neftohim Burgas (LNB) refinery. Performance of LNB ebullated bed vacuum residue H-Oil hydrocracker for a period of 10 years during processing 39 different vacuum residues at reactor temperatures between 408 and 434°C, and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) between 0.12 and 0.22 h-1 is discussed in this study. The feasible co-processing of renewable feedstocks in the H-Oil hydrocracker is also outlined.
SN  - 3070-1058
PB  - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge
LA  - English
ER  - 
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@article{Stratiev2025Lessons,
  author = {Dicho Stratiev},
  title = {Lessons Learned from 10 Years H-Oil Exploitation},
  journal = {Journal of Chemical Engineering and Renewable Fuels},
  year = {2025},
  volume = {1},
  number = {1},
  pages = {15-21},
  doi = {10.62762/JCERF.2025.759076},
  url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/JCERF.2025.759076},
  abstract = {The ebulled bed hydrocracking technology of petroleum residues, called H-Oil, was invented in the 1950s. The first patent was issued in 1961. A demonstration unit was started up in 1963, and the first large-scale commercial unit was started up in 1968. There are currently 21 vacuum residue hydrocracking units operating worldwide using the ebulled bed reactor technology. Since 2015, the ebulated bed vacuum residue (VR) hydrocracking has been operated at the LUKOIL Neftohim Burgas (LNB) refinery. Performance of LNB ebullated bed vacuum residue H-Oil hydrocracker for a period of 10 years during processing 39 different vacuum residues at reactor temperatures between 408 and 434°C, and liquid hourly space velocity (LHSV) between 0.12 and 0.22 h-1 is discussed in this study. The feasible co-processing of renewable feedstocks in the H-Oil hydrocracker is also outlined.},
  keywords = {hydrocracking, vacuum residue, conversion, sedimentation, co-processing},
  issn = {3070-1058},
  publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}

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CC BY Copyright © 2025 by the Author(s). Published by Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
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