The present invention relates to a process for the produc- tion of a high quality hydrocarbon fraction boiling above 190°C, which may be used to provide high quality diesel fuel and lubricant base stocks from high boiling aromatic carbonaceous feedstock such as tar, typically originating from the processing of coal, but also from other heavy hy- drocarbon sources. Particularly, the invention relates to a process for the production of quality diesel and lubricant base stocks from a carbonaceous material in which high lev ^¬ els of nitrogen, oxygen and aromatics are present. The car ^¬ bonaceous material is subjected to hydrogenation and cata- lytic conversion typically by a highly active process in ^¬ volving active catalysts and process conditions in a hydro- treating process in optional combination with a hydro- cracking process. The output of this process is multiple product streams, one of which is a lubricant base stock which falls within high quality industry standards such API Group II or API Group III base oil stock classification.

Tar is often considered an undesirable by-product from coal processing, and there is cost and effort associated with the disposal of surplus tar. This has sparked interest for an efficient conversion of the tar into products with an actual market demand. One such market demand is lubricant base stocks which are required for the blending of a wide range of finished lubricants for automotive, marine, indus- trial, and other applications. Most lubricant base stocks are traditionally manufactured from mineral crude oils. However, the present invention generates a high quality lubricant base stock by processing and upgrading an otherwise not very desirable industrial by-product.

GB 761,755 and GB 935,712 describe processes in which puri- fied coal tar fractions are hydrogenated . GB 935,712 de ^¬ scribes hydrogenation of a coal tar with the objective of forming cycloalkanes, which are not suited for use as die- sel fuel or lubricant base stock. GB 761,755 describes a process for conversion of acid and base free coal tar frac- tions into decahydronaphthalene and other cycloalkanes.

Both processes describe a procedure with an initial removal of heteroatoms by hydrogenation or other means, followed by a separate hydrogenation of aromatics. Such operation would in an industrial setting correspond to a two stage opera- tion.

CN1243814C describes a two stage process for production of gasoline, diesel and lubricants, in which the ¾:oil ratio is between 1100:1 and 1300:1 Nm ³ /m ³ . The feed to the pro- cess contained 1606 ppm sulfur and 8636 ppm nitrogen, and the hydrotreated product mixture contained 100 ppm nitro ^¬ gen, and an undisclosed amount of sulfur. The hydrotreated product mixture is subsequently hydrocracked and fraction ^¬ ated into gasoline, diesel and lubricant base oil. The yield of the different fractions is not disclosed. The lub ^¬ ricant base oil fraction comprises 11.4% aromatics, which does not meet the requirements for API Group II or API Group III base oils. The diesel fraction comprises 53.2% aromatics and has a cetane number of 37, which indicate a diesel which was not fully hydrotreated. CN103146424 relates to a two stage process for production of fuel and lubricants, in which light products from hy- drotreatment in the first stage are separated from heavy products prior to dewaxing of heavy products in a second stage. The patent claims cover a wide range of process con ^¬ ditions, but only a single set of process conditions have been evaluated experimentally. The catalyst employed for hydrotreatment is only moderately active, and hydrotreat- ment is only conducted to a sulfur level around 300 wt ppm, which also indicates only moderate hydrodenitrogenation .

The lubricant product has a moderate viscosity index (VI) of 102, which only is sufficient for API Group II base stock classification. The gasoline fraction comprises 2% oxygen and 0.03wt% sulfur, which is indicative of a gaso- line product which has only been moderately hydrotreated .

Operation of processes in two stages have the benefit of enabling removal of product or side-product, but they are also related to an increase in cost.

Now according to the present disclosure it has been identi ^¬ fied that a single stage hydrotreatment process is able to provide a high quality fraction boiling above 190°C, for producing a high quality lubricating oil as well as high quality diesel, if deep hydrotreatment is carried out.

As used herein Group VIII shall be construed as elements from the periodic table according to the CAS definition, i.e. as the elements of the combined 1990 IUPAC Groups 8, 9 and 10. Similarly Group VIB shall be construed as the ele ^¬ ments of the combined 1990 IUPAC Group 6. As used herein a cold flow parameter or a cold flow property shall be understood as a temperature reflecting the vis ^¬ cosity of a hydrocarbon mixture at low temperatures, in ^¬ cluding the parameters cloud point, pour point, freezing point and cold filter plugging point (CFPP) . Common for these parameters are that they define the requirement to low viscosity of diesel under cold conditions as it is also specified in the standard EN 590 specifying requirements to diesel, and the improvement of cold flow properties or of any one of these parameters shall unless stated otherwise be understood as equivalent.

As used herein, boiling in a given range, shall be understood as a hydrocarbon mixture of which at least 80 wt% boils in the stated range.

As used herein naphtha shall be understood as a hydrocarbon product boiling in the range 20-150 °C. As used herein diesel shall be understood as a hydrocarbon product boiling in the range 150-390°C, even though it may not fulfill all formal requirements for commercial diesel.

As used herein lubricants shall be understood as a hydro- carbon product boiling above 350°C and having attractive viscosity properties.

As used herein, deep hydrotreatment shall be understood as the hydrotreatment to a very low level of sulfur and nitro- gen, typically below 30 wt ppm, below 20 wt ppm or even below 10 wt ppm. As used herein, base oil shall be understood as a raw mate ^¬ rial for production of lubricants, which may not fulfill all requirements to lubricant products, such as cold flow properties .

As used herein a fraction shall be understood as a part of a stream. The part of the stream in a fraction may be defined simply by splitting the stream or by the boiling point of the fraction, either as the boiling range from a fractionator or as a vapour or liquid stream from a separator operating at a given pressure and temperature.

As used herein excess hydrogen shall be understood as the provision of hydrogen beyond what is stoichiometrically re- quired for all hydrotreatment reactions to occur.

As used herein Viscosity Index (VI) shall be understood as a measure of the temperature influence of lubricant oil viscosity, in accordance with ASTM standard D2270. Increas- ing VI indicates decreasing temperature influence on vis ^¬ cosity, which is preferred.

As used herein single stage shall be understood as a sec ^¬ tion of the process in which no stream is withdrawn. Typi- cally a single stage does not include equipment such as compressors, by which the pressure is increased.

API (American Petroleum Institute) base oil classifications is a series of quality definitions for base oils, and are a.o. used for trading the oil. API base oil Group III re ^¬ quirements include less than 300 wt ppm sulfur, at least 90% saturates and a VI above 120. API base oil Group II re- quirements include less than 300 wt ppm sulfur, at least 90% saturates and a VI between 80 and 120. In addition to the API classifications, standards by other organisations such as SAE exist, and base oils may also be traded based on individual product specifications, often with a minimum VI of 110.

As used herein coal gasification shall be understood as a process comprising coking processes, which destructively distill the coal feedstock, to produce coke with a high carbon content, a gas phase and a liquid phase, coal tar. The coal tar produced is differentiated by its mode of pro ^¬ duction - either a high temperature or low temperature pro ^¬ cess. High temperature coal tars are the condensation prod- ucts obtained by the cooling of the gas evolved at pro ^¬ cessing temperatures of greater than about 700° C. and up to about 1350° C. Typically, temperatures for the low tem ^¬ perature process ranged from about 200° C. to about 700° C. Tar is a heavy hydrocarbonaceous liquid. Terms such as coal tar and coke oven tar may be used to indicate the source of the tar. For the purpose of the present application tar is typically a product of coal gasification. Such coal tar is characterized by a high presence of heteroatoms (especially nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen) as well as a high content of aromatics .

As used herein aromatics shall be defined by well- established chemical definitions. However, when quantified, aromatics amounts are determined and defined according to the established ASTM D-6591 method. A broad embodiment of the present disclosure relates to a process for removal of at least 20%, 40% or 80% of the aro- matics content of the fraction boiling above 190°C from a heavy hydrocarbonaceous feedstock comprising at least 30wt% aromatics, at least 3000 wt ppm nitrogen and at least

0.5wt% oxygen said method being carried out in a single stage in which no intermediate stream is withdrawn and comprising the steps of

a. providing a hydrotreater feed by combining said heavy hydrocarbonaceous feedstock with excess hy ^¬ drogen, providing a hydrotreater feed, b. providing a hydrotreated hydrocarbon product comprising less than 30 wt ppm nitrogen, less than 20 wt ppm nitrogen or less than 10 wt ppm nitro- gen by hydrotreating said hydrotreater feed by contacting it with a material catalytically ac ^¬ tive in hydrotreatment under hydrotreatment con ^¬ ditions,

c. providing a hydrotreated product either as the hydrotreated hydrocarbon product of step b or by fractionation as a fraction of said hydrotreated hydrocarbon product,

with the associated benefit of a process providing a low level of nitrogen in the hydrocarbon product also providing a high potential for dearomatization . As known to the skilled person, such a process may either involve long res ^¬ idence times and high hydrogen pressures or the use of a material which is highly catalytically active in hy ^¬ drotreatment, in combination with selection of process con- ditions favoring deep hydrotreatment. Such materials are commercially available, and it is well-known to the skilled person how to operate the processes to obtain high conver- sion, e.g. by increasing temperature and hydrogen partial pressure. The aromatics content of the heavy hydrocarbona- ceous feedstock may typically be between 30wt% aromatics and 90wt% aromatics. The nitrogen content of the heavy hy- drocarbonaceous feedstock may typically be between 3000 wt ppm and 10000 wt ppm. The oxygen content of the heavy hy- drocarbonaceous feedstock may typically be between 0.5 wt% and 10 wt%. The removal of aromatics content from the frac ^¬ tion boiling above 190°C may be from 20%, 40% or 80% to 99% or 100%.

In a further embodiment the material catalytically active in hydrotreatment comprises a group VIII metal compound, a group VIB metal compound and an oxidic support, taken from the group consisting of alumina, silica, titania and combi ^¬ nations thereof with the associated benefit of such a cata ^¬ lyst being highly active in hydrodenitrogenation, while being substantially inactive in hydrocracking, such that the yield loss is minimized.

In a further embodiment the hydro-treatment conditions in ^¬ volve a hydrogen pressure from 120, 140 or 160 to 200 bar with the associated benefit of such a high hydrogen pres ^¬ sure supporting deep hydrotreatment, and thus providing the low amount of nitrogen required for high saturation of aromatics .

In a further embodiment the hydro-treatment conditions in ^¬ volve a temperature from 340°C or 360°C to 400 or 420°C with the associated benefit of ensuring a high activity, but still avoiding thermal cracking. In a further embodiment the hydro-treatment conditions in ^¬ volve a liquid hourly space velocity of 0.1 hr ^-1 or 0.2 hr ^-1 to 0.5 hr ^-1 , 0.6 hr ^-1 or 1.0 hr ^-1 with the associated bene ^¬ fit of such conditions providing a very high conversion with respect to hydrodenitrogenation and dearomatization, while avoiding a very large reactor size.

In a further embodiment the process comprises the further steps of

d. a further hydroprocessing step, directing said hy- drotreated product or a fraction thereof to contact a further material catalytically active in in hy ^¬ droprocessing, under hydroprocessing conditions providing a hydroprocessed hydrocarbon product and e. providing a hydroprocessed product either as the hydroprocessed hydrocarbon product of step d or as a fraction of said hydroprocessed hydrocarbon, with the associated benefit of such a process providing a hydroprocessed product, having improved properties over said hydrotreated product.

In a further embodiment the material catalytically active in hydroprocessing is a material catalytically active in hydrocracking such as a material comprising a metal compo- nent selected from Group VIII and/or VIB of the Periodic System and being supported on a carrier containing one or more oxides taken from the group consisting of alumina, silica, titania, silica-alumina, molecular sieves, zeo ^¬ lites, ZSM-11, ZSM-22, ZSM-23, ZSM-48, SAPO-5, SAPO-11, SAPO-31, SAPO-34, SAPO-41, MCM-41, zeolite Y, ZSM-5 and ze ^¬ olite beta with the associated benefit of such a hy ^¬ drocracking processs of converting high boiling products to lower boiling products, e.g. for providing increased diesel yield of the hydroprocessed product over the hydrotreated product . In a further embodiment the reaction step in the presence of a material catalytically active in hydrocracking is car ^¬ ried out a temperature between 200°C and 400°C,

a pressure between 15 and 200 barg,

a liquid hourly space velocity between 0.2 hr-1 and 5 hr-1,

and a hydrogen to hydrocarbon ratio between 100 and 2000 Nm ³ / m ³ .

with the associated benefit of such a hydrocracking pro- cesss of converting high boiling products to lower boiling products, e.g. for providing increased diesel yield of the hydroprocessed product over the hydrotreated product.

In a further embodiment at least 80wt% of either said hy ^¬ drotreated product or said hydroprocessed product is a fraction boiling above 360°C with the associated benefit that such a high boiling product having a low aromatic content will be a valuable lubricant base oil.

In a further embodiment the hydroprocessed product fraction boiling above 360°C is a lubricant or a lubricant base stock having a viscosity index of at least 110 or 120 with the associated benefit that such a lubricant has a high value. Typically the final boiling point of this fraction will be below 600°C.

In a further embodiment at least 80wt% of either said hy ^¬ drotreated product or said hydroprocessed product is a fraction boiling between 150 and 350°C, with the associated benefit that such a product having a low aromatic content will be a valuable diesel product or diesel blend compo ^¬ nent .

In a further embodiment said fraction boiling between 150 and 350°C is a diesel or a diesel blend stock having a ce- tane index of at least 35, 38 or 40, with the associated benefit that such a product will be of immediate use as a valuable diesel product. Typically the cetane index will be below 70, 90 or 100.

A feedstock according to the present disclosure comprises high amounts of aromatics (>30wt%) as well as high amounts of heteroatoms, especially oxygen (>0.5wt%) and nitrogen (>3000wt ppm) . Such feedstocks, may originate as side streams from production of coke, or from gasification or so-called destructive distillation of coal, as well as from pyrolysis processes. According to the prior art such feed- stocks have been hydrotreated with the objective of provid ^¬ ing naphtha for gasoline production and middle distillate for diesel production. The naphtha and diesel have however not been of high quality, and a yield of low quality heavy hydrocarbons has also reduced the economics of the process.

Now, according to the present method it is possible to pro ^¬ vide an amount of quality diesel and quality lubricant base oil by hydrogenation and saturation of the aromatics. This is based on the identification of the criticality of the ability of the hydrotreatment process to remove a high amount of organic nitrogen. Without being bound by theory, it is assumed that only when the organic nitrogen is re- duced to a low level, the catalytic hydrogenation of aro- matics is sufficiently active for the successful conversion of aromatics required in production of high quality diesel and high quality lubricant base oil. It is further assumed - again without being bound by theory - that the high amount of oxygen in the hydrocarbon structures may contrib ^¬ ute to the formation of high boiling hydrocarbons with a high viscosity index by rupturing the molecular structure during hydrodeoxygenation, and providing a product with a high amount of paraffins.

In the process design for feedstocks with high amounts of heteroatoms, the typical design will be driven by cost op ^¬ timization, such that the process engineer will select a process with sufficient hydrotreatment for meeting official sulfur standards, in order to reduce reactor size, catalyst cost, hydrogen consumption and to yield losses. To this process a hydrocracking process step as in CN1243814C may be added, as this would provide the highest possible diesel yield by conversion of high boiling hydrocarbons to lower boiling hydrocarbons. In addition some hydrodenitrogenation takes place during hydrocracking. However when replacing the "sufficient hydrotreatment" with "deep hydrotreatment" consuming a higher amount of hydrogen, it was discovered that the extra cost is rewarded by a yield of high quality lubricant and diesel, which surprisingly outweighed the ex ^¬ tra cost of deep hydrotreatment.

A requirement to the hydrogenation process used according to the present disclosure therefore is a combination of high hydrodenitrogenation activity with a high dearomatiza- tion activity. This combined high activity may be obtained by employing a high ¾ partial pressure, which shifts the hydrotreatment equilibria towards hydrogenated products. As the feedstock includes high amounts of heteroatoms, the re ^¬ quirement for high ¾ excess in combination with low space velocity becomes especially important.

The conditions required for sufficient hydrodenitrogenation depend on the specific feedstock and the specific catalyst used, but in general a high pressure, a high hydrogen puri- ty and a catalyst highly active in hydrodenitrogenation and dearomatization, a.o. due to a high surface area and a high dispersion of active metals are beneficial for the process according to the present disclosure.

In theory, even a moderately active catalyst could be oper ^¬ ated under conditions such as a low space velocity, which would enable the full hydrodenitrogenation. This would how ^¬ ever require a large reactor and high amounts of catalyst. The moderate activity of the catalyst may be compensated by increasing the temperature, and an increase in pressure would also favor hydrodenitrogenation. In the practical design of such processes, the individual values of such pa ^¬ rameters is dependent on each other, as well as the cata ^¬ lyst used, the specific feed and the desired products.

Still, the extent of hydrodenitrogenation can be considered a variable which may be controlled by the overall process conditions, in a manner known to the skilled person.

A process for dearomatization would be favored by the same conditions as those favoring hydrodenitrogenation. However, in addition organic nitrogen is known to inhibit the dearomatization by adsorption to the active sites, and therefore it is important that organic nitrogen is removed extensively if a high dearomatization is to be observed. If the process activity is moderate, hydro-denitrogenation of organic nitrogen molecules may not be completed until a po- sition proximate to the exit of the reactor, and in this case, the initial part of the reactor will contain catalyst which is highly inhibited with respect to hydro- dearomatization by the presence of organic nitrogen on the active sites of the catalyst surface. In such a case the product mixture from hydrogenation will have a low nitrogen level, but an intermediate or even high aromatics level.

The dearomatization will only be active in the section of the reactor which contains catalytically active material not inhibited by the nitrogen. Dearomatization will proceed as a saturation reaction providing saturated hydrocarbon rings or as a ring opening reaction, providing normal or branched paraffins . One example of a catalyst active in hydro-denitrogenation and hydro-dearomatization is the Haldor Tops0e A/S TK-609T HyBRIM™ catalyst. This catalyst is based on HyBRIM tech ^¬ nology, according to which the active metals (Ni and Mo) are highly dispersed, to provide a high amount of active sites at the edge of the dispersed metal particles.

This objective of deep hydrotreatment can be achieved by a conventional but severe hydrotreating step that normally involves operation at temperatures between 340°C and 420°C, hydrogen pressures from 120 bars up to 200 bars , while the space velocity (LHSV) is quite low at 0.1 hr ^-1 to 0.6 hr ^-1 or 1.0 hr ^-1 . The inlet temperature may often be lower by 20°C or more, as significant hydrodeoxygenation occurs, which is higly exothermic. If the temperature is increased further there is risk that thermal cracking occurs, which gives a yield loss. The high hydrogen pressure is required to shift the thermodynamical equilibrium to promote the saturation of aromatics, and may require a purity of hydro ^¬ gen above 90% or even 95%. In addition the H ₂ /01I ratio is preferably in the range 2000-3000 Nm ³ /m ³ , as the high amount of heteroatoms in the process consumes a high amount of hydrogen, and the catalyst is preferably highly active.

The hydrotreating catalyst comprises a sulfided metal com ^¬ ponent selected from the non-noble metals of Group VIII and VIB of the Periodic System and being supported on a carrier containing alumina, silica, titania or combinations there ^¬ of, and optionally in combination with further promoting constituents. These catalysts are preferably those employed conventionally, such as mixed cobalt and/or nickel and mo ^¬ lybdenum sulfides (Co-Mo, Ni-Mo, Ni-W) supported on alumi- na, silica, silica-alumina or combinations of these. Most preferably the hydrotreating catalyst is Ni-Mo/alumina, Co- Mo/alumina or Ni-W/alumina .

In a further disclosure of the process, a hydroisomeriza- tion catalyst or a hydrocracking catalysts may be included to improve the cold flow properties of the liquid product. As the hydrogenation of aromatics results in paraffins with moderate branching which have poor cold flow properties, it may be necessary to decrease the cloud or pour point in or- der to meet industry specifications. Such an adjustment by hydroisomerization may however also be carried out in a different plant, if a lubricant base oil is sold to a com- pany with capability to perform hydroisomerization of their raw material if required. As both diesel and lubricant fractions may require dewaxing by hydroisomerisation, it is possible that the hydroisomerisation is carried out on the full product mixture, but separate treatment of the diesel and the lubricant fraction may also be preferred in order to reduce the yield loss.

The hydroisomerization catalyst comprises a metal component selected from Group VIII and/or VIB of the Periodic System and being supported on a carrier containing alumina, sili ^¬ ca, titania, silica-alumina, molecular sieves, zeolites, ZSM-11, ZSM-22, ZSM-23, ZSM-48, SAPO-5, SAPO-11, SAPO-31, SAPO-34, SAPO-41, MCM-41, zeolite Y, ZSM-5, and zeolite be- ta.. Preferably the hydroisomerization catalyst is Ni-W supported on a carrier containing alumina, zeolite beta and silica-alumina .

The hydroisomerisation step may be carried out in the same reactor and/or same catalyst bed as the previous step(s) or it may be carried out in a separate reactor. The catalyst bed may therefore be a combination of catalysts active in hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) , hydrotreatment (HDS, HDN, HDA) , hydroisomerisation (HI) and hydrocracking (HC) .

The hydroisomerization step involves operation between 200 and 500°C, at pressures up to 200 bars. In a particular em ^¬ bodiment, the hydrotreating step and hydroisomerization step are carried out at a hydrogen pressure of 1-200 bar and at a temperature of 250-450°C, preferably at a pressure of 10-150 bar and a temperature of 250-410°C and at a liq- uid hourly space velocity of 0.1 - 10 h . The H2/0H ratio is preferably in the range 100-3000 Nm ³ /m ³ .

The hydroisomerization catalyst converts the normal paraf- fins into iso-paraffins with better cold-flow properties. The bifunctional hydroisomerization catalyst contains both acidic sites typically associated with the oxide carrier and hydrogenation sites typically associated with the metal component. If the active metal component is one or more Group VIII noble metals, the hydroisomerization should preferably be carried out in a separate process stage after separation of hydrogen sulfide, ammonia and water, or at least in a separate reactor or catalyst bed and the feed to the hydroisomerization catalyst should be virtually free of nitrogen and sulfur species, i.e. contain less than 100 wtppm sulfur and less than 100 wtppm nitrogen, preferably less than 10 wtppm sulfur and less than 10 wtppm nitrogen. If the active phase of the metal components is a metal sul ^¬ fide (e.g. Ni-Mo-S, Co-Mo-S, Ni-W-S) then the step may be carried out in a sour environment and the costly install ^¬ ment of equipment to remove ¾S and N¾ formed in the pre ^¬ vious step(s) is thus not necessary.

Brief description of Figures .

Fig.l illustrates the present disclosure, and

Fig.2 illustrates a process employing an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Numbers referred to in the Figures Raw coal tar 2

Feed fractionation column 4

Heavy asphalt fraction 6

Coal tar 8

Pump 10

Pressurized coal tar 12

Hydrogen rich stream 14

Hydrotreatment feedstock 16

Heat exchanger 18

Fired heater 20

Hydrodemetallization (HDM) reactor 22

Metal guard material 24

Quench hydrogen 26

Demetallized feedstock 28

Heat exchanger 30

Heavy hydrocarbonaceous feedstock 32

Hydrotreatment reactors 34, 40, 46

Intermediate cooling 38, 44 and 50

Partially hydrotreated hydrocarbon products 36, 42 and 48. Bypass line 52

Hydrotreated product 54

Further hydroprocessing reactor 56

By-pass line 62

Hydroprocessed hydrocarbon product 58

Cooler 60

High pressure separator 66

Product stream 68

Vapor stream 72

Compressor 74

Make-up hydrogen 76

Low pressure separator 70

Hydroprocessed product recycle stream 78 Hydroprocessed product 80

Fractionator 82

Fuel gas stream 84

Naphtha stream 86

Middle distillate (or diesel) stream 88

Unconverted oil (or lubricant base stock) stream 90.

In Fig. 1 an embodiment of the present disclosure is illus ^¬ trated. According to Fig. 1 a heavy hydrocarbonaceous feed- stock 32, having a high content of nitrogen, oxygen and ar- omatics, such as pretreated coal tar, is directed to a sin ^¬ gle hydrotreatment reactor 34 having one or more reactor beds, with optional addition of hydrogen 26 from a hydrogen rich gas 14 which mainly for temperature control may be done between reactor beds. From the hydrotreatment reactor a deep hydrotreated product may be withdrawn, which has a low nitrogen content, and thus high dearomatization has been possible in the zones furthest downstream in the reac ^¬ tor. Therefore the hydrotreated hydrocarbon product 48 has a low content of aromatics.

In Fig. 2 a process, employing an embodiment of the present disclosure is illustrated, including a number of optional elements, included to illustrate one way of pretreating a raw coal tar prior to deep hydrotreatment. A raw coal tar 2 is directed as feed to an optional feed fractionation col ^¬ umn 4, in which a heavy asphalt fraction 6 may be withdrawn, before the coal tar 8 is directed to a pump 10, af ^¬ ter which the pressurized coal tar 12 is combined with a hydrogen rich recycle stream 14, providing a hydrotreatment feedstock 16. The hydrotreatment feedstock 16, is heated in heat exchanger 18 and fired heater 20, before being di- rected to a hydrodemetallization (HDM) reactor 22, comprising a metal guard material 24, having a high metal absorp ^¬ tion capacity and a hydrotreatment activity. To the HDM re ^¬ actor, and other reactors quench hydrogen 26 is added main- ly for temperature control from a hydrogen rich stream 14. The temperature of demetallized feedstock effluent 28 may be appropriately adjusted in heat exchanger 30 and directed as a heavy hydrocarbonaceous feedstock 32 to three hy ^¬ drotreatment reactors in series 34, 40, 46, with optional intermediate cooling, 38, 44 and 50 of the partially hy- drotreated hydrocarbon products 36, 42 and 48. In the il ^¬ lustration in Fig.2 3 reactors are shown in series, each with 3 reactor beds, but in practice it may be fewer reac ^¬ tors or more reactors, and fewer or more reactor beds. The catalyst in the three reactors comprises in general a mate ^¬ rial catalytically active in hydrotreatment, but the spe ^¬ cific composition in each reactor or each reactor bed may be tailored to the specific heavy hydrocarbonaceous feed ^¬ stock, e.g. based on the amount of oxygen in the feedstock, which would be hydrogenated in exothermal hydrodeoxygena- tion reactions. At the outlet of the third hydrotreatment reactor a hydrotreated hydrocarbon product 48 is provided. The third reactor 46 may however also be fully or partially bypassed by line 52 if so required, e.g. until the condi- tions require that the third reactor is put in use, e.g. due to deactivation of the first and second reactors. The hydrotreated hydrocarbon product is directed as a hy ^¬ drotreated product 54 to a further hydroprocessing reactor 56, or alternatively the further hydroprocessing reactor is by-passed by line 62. The further hydroprocessing reactor 56, may be either operating as a hydroisomerisation reactor, or as a hydrocracking reactor. If the further hydro- processing reactor 56 is operating as a hydrocracking reactor, the product 58 will have reduced boiling point and a reduced yield of high boiling products, as these will be hydrocracked to form especially middle distillate products for e.g. diesel. Typically a hydrocracking reactor will involve a certain amount of yield loss, by conversion into light hydrocarbons.

If the further hydroprocessing reactor 56 is operating as a hydroisomerisation reactor, the product 58 will have only moderate change in boiling point, but instead a conversion of linear paraffins to branched paraffins will occur, which is beneficial as the cold flow properties of the isomerized product will be improved; i.e. the pour point will be low- er. However, a reduction of viscosity index may also be ob ^¬ served as a result of paraffin isomerization . The yield loss will be moderate, but very often hydroisomerisation will be carried out only on a specific fraction after frac ^¬ tionation not shown in the figures, in a separate reactor to reduce yield loss even further. Typically the hydroisom ^¬ erisation catalyst is similar to a hydrocracking catalyst, but selectivity is increased by operating at less severe conditions . The hydroprocessed hydrocarbon 58 may be cooled in cooler 60 and separated in a high pressure separator 66, to a va ^¬ por stream 72 and a product stream 68. The vapor stream 72 is pressurized in compressor 74 and combined with make-up hydrogen 76. The product stream is depressurized in a low pressure separator (or optionally more) , and an amount 78 may be directed for liquid recycle. Another amount of a hy ^¬ droprocessed product 80 is directed to a fractionator 82. According to Fig.2 the fractionator is fractionating the product based on boiling point into a fuel gas stream 84, a naphtha stream 86, a middle distillate (or diesel) stream 88 and an unconverted oil (or lubricant base stock) stream 90.

In further embodiments, not illustrated in figures, the stream 48 may be separated into a heavy and a lighter stream. Often the lighter stream may be directly available as a diesel product or possibly require isomerization to improve the cold flow properties, whereas the heavy stream may require hydrocracking to yield a product in a desirable boiling range. By separating the hydrotreated product into a light fraction and a heavy fraction, it becomes possible to treat each fraction of the hydrotreated product optimal ^¬ ly - which may or may not involve hydroprocessing of that fraction. This can reduce one or more of the total reactor size, the yield loss and the consumption of hydrogen, and it may even lead to a more attractive product mix. By providing a fractionator prior to the further hydroprocessing it may also be possible to avoid the fractionator 82 downstream further hydroprocessing.

In further embodiments, one or both of the optional separa- tions may be carried out in simple gas liquid separators, operating at suitable pressure and temperature, or in a more complex distillation based fractionator operating at low pressure, providing a better separation. It may be beneficial to maintain an elevated pressure during separation as this will be more energy efficient, since the pressure in downstream reactors may not have to be re-established. Examples

Three experiments were conducted to demonstrate the effect of highly effective hydrodenitrogenation and dearomatiza- tion processes.

A hydrotreatment catalyst was made as follows. Alumina pow ^¬ der, alumina gel and diluted nitric acid are mixed for 12 minutes and extruded, in 1/20" trilobe shape. The extru- dates are dried for 2 hours at 200°C and then calcined at 550 °C. The extrudates are then impregnated with an acidic NiMo solution prepared with phosphoric acid, molybdenum trioxide and nickel carbonate, adjusting the amounts to produce a catalyst with 16 wt% Ni, 3 wt% Mo and 3 wt% P. The catalyst is calcined at 370°C for 2 hours.

The experiments were carried out in a unit with two iso ^¬ thermal reactors in series. The first reactor was loaded with 63 ml of commercial demetallization catalyst TK-743, followed by commercial dearsenation catalyst TK-47, whilst the second reactor was loaded with commercial hydrotreat ^¬ ment catalyst TK-609T HyBRIM™ from Haldor Tops0e A/S. The catalyst beds in both reactors were diluted by 40 vol% in ^¬ ert carborundum (SiC) prior to loading in order to improve the liquid distribution of the reactors. Pure hydrogen was used in once-through mode.

A straight-run fossil diesel spiked with TBDS was used for sulfiding the catalysts. Conditions at three different pressures were tested (168 barg, 120 barg and 100 barg) were tested. Results from the experiments are shown in Ta ^¬ ble 2. The feed for the experiments was a tar from gasification coal, having the properties of Table 1. The determination of aromatic content was carried out according to method ASTM D6591.

Table 1:

Experiments 1, 2 and 3 were carried out in two isothermal reactors in series, with the conditions of the hydrotreat- ment reactor being stated in Table 2.

Table 2:

The results of Table 2 demonstrate that a significant yield of a high viscosity index lubricant is possible.

When compared to the prior art it is seen that the product according to Experiment 1 is having a 5wt% yield of a frac tion with excellent lubricant base stock properties, as well as about 70wt% diesel of good quality. Also the prod- uct of experiments 2 and 3 were deeply hydrotreated, and included middle distillate and lube base oil of good quali ^¬ ty, but the lower severity of hydrotreatment was reflected in a higher aromatic content. This was reflected in a lower product quality; for the middle distillate a lower cetane index and for the lube base oil a lower VI. In comparison, the lubricant products according to the prior art were doc ^¬ umented to have inferior VI of only 105. This is assumed to be due to insufficient dearomatization, which again is be- lieved to be related to insufficient hydrodenitrogenation .

All three examples fall under the present disclosure; exam ^¬ ples 1 and 2 show a high extent of saturation of all aro- matics, while example 3 shows a high extent of saturation of di-aromatics and tri-aromatics .

The high viscosity index lubricant fraction of the present disclosure indicates that this fraction has a high content of paraffins. Similarly the middle distillate of experiment 1 has a higher cetane index that the middle distillates of experiments 2 and 3, which is also believed to indicate a high paraffin content.