Processes herein may be used to thermally crack various hydrocarbon feeds, and may eliminate the refinery altogether while making the crude to chemicals process very flexible in terms of crude. In embodiments herein, crude is progressively separated into at least light and heavy fractions. Depending on the quality of the light and heavy fractions, these are routed to one of three upgrading operations, including a fixed bed hydroconversion unit, a fluidized catalytic conversion unit, or a residue hydrocracking unit that may utilize an ebullated bed reactor. Products from the upgrading operations may be used as feed to a steam cracker.

Processes herein may be used to thermally crack various hydrocarbon feeds, and may eliminate the refinery altogether while making the crude to chemicals process very flexible in terms of crude. In embodiments herein, crude is progressively separated into at least light and heavy fractions. Depending on the quality of the light and heavy fractions, these are routed to one of three upgrading operations, including a fixed bed hydroconversion unit, a fluidized catalytic conversion unit, or a residue hydrocracking unit that may utilize an ebullated bed reactor. Products from the upgrading operations may be used as feed to a steam cracker.

A pseudo-boehmite has a dry basis content of 55-85 wt % and contains a phosphoric acid ester group. The sodium oxide content is not greater than 0.5 wt %, and the phosphorus content (in terms of phosphorus pentoxide) is 1.2-5.7 wt %, relative to 100 wt % of the total weight of the pseudo-boehmite. The pseudo-boehmite has a low sodium content.

A variety of systems and methods are disclosed, including, in one embodiment, a method of needle coke production. The method includes hydro-processing a hydrocarbon liquid by contacting the hydrocarbon liquid with at least one hydro-processing catalyst in one or more hydro-processing stages to form a hydro-processed product, wherein the hydro-processing of the hydrocarbon liquid in at least one of the one or more hydro-processing stages is performed in the presence of a utility fluid. The hydrocarbon liquid includes an initial boiling point at atmospheric pressure of about 200 C. or greater in accordance with ASTM 7500. The hydrocarbon liquid includes an aromatic content of about 50 wt. % or greater. The method further includes coking at least a portion of the hydro-processed product to form a coker effluent and coke, wherein the coke comprises needle coke.