The invention discloses a heavy oil hydrotreatment method, which comprises the following steps that a heavy oil
raw material enters a hydrogenation reactor and contacts a hydrogenation catalyst
bed layer to carry out a
hydrogenation reaction, and the
reaction product flows out of the reactor, wherein the hydrogenation catalyst
bed layer is filled with at least two stages of
vulcanization-state hydrogenation catalysts in a grading manner along the
material flow direction, the average length of the
metal active phase crystals of each stage of the
vulcanization-state hydrogenation catalyst is increased stage by stage along the
material flow direction, the average layer number of the
lamellar crystals is reduced stage by stage, the content of the
active components is increased stage by stage,and the probable
pore diameter is reduced stage by stage. According to the method, the specific catalyst
gradation is adopted, so that the
active center of the catalyst can be effectively utilized, the
coupling reaction performance of an
active center structure and a reactant molecular structure is improved, the stability of
hydrogenation reaction, such as demetalization, desulfurization,
denitrification and the like, of the whole
system is greatly improved, and deep hydrogenation of heavy oil is facilitated.