World petroleum residue processing capacity has reached about 810 MMTPA. In the present petroleum refining scenario, the viability of a petroleum refinery strongly depends on the flexibility of processing heavy crudes and, in turn, heavy residues. Visbreaking is one of the major residue upgrading processes and constitutes about 33% of the total residue processing capacity. In the present communication, the published literature pertaining to the visbreaking process has been extensively analyzed and a state-of-the-art review has been written that includes the following: (i) the effect of feed properties on fuel oil stability; (ii) reaction pathways, mechanism, and kinetics; (iii) parametric sensitivity of the operating variables such as temperature, pressure, and residence time; (iv) different visbreaker designs, viz. coil visbreaker, coil-soaker visbreaker, soaker with internals, and high conversion soaker; (v) coking and fouling; (vi) estimation of design parameters, viz. gas holdup in high-pressure bubble column (soaker), gas holdup in sectionalized bubble column (soaker with internals), liquid-phase mixing and axial mixing in high-pressure bubble column, liquid-phase mixing and axial mixing in sectionalized bubble column, and weeping; and (vii) mathematical modeling of visbreaker, which mainly includes the coil and the soaker. An attempt has been made to get the aforementioned aspects together in a coherent manner so that the information is available at a glance and is expected to be useful to researchers and practicing refiners.

getting burdened with heavy residues that are subsequently obtained by processing heavy crudes. Heavy crudes (≤ 20 ºAPI) yield large amount of residual fractions such as atmospheric residue (AR, initial boiling point, IBP > 343ºC) and vacuum residue (VR, IBP > 500ºC) as shown in Figure 1 (Boduszynski, 2002). The processes that convert these heavy ends into lighter, more value-added products are termed as bottom-of-the-barrel conversion processes or residue upgrading processes.Among the various processes available, the delayed coking process is a long-time workhorse as regards the bottom-of-thebarrel upgrading (Schulman et al., 1993). World coking capacity has reached about 210 MMTPA (Swaty, 2005), comprising India's World petroleum residue processing capacity has reached about 725 million metric tons per annum (MMTPA). The high demand for transportation fuels and the ever-rising heavy nature of crude oil have resulted in a renewed interest in the bottom-of-the-barrel processing using various conversion processes. Delayed coking, known for processing virtually any refi nery stream (which not only poses a serious threat to environment, but also involves a disposal cost) has garnered tremendous importance in the current refi ning scenario. Needle coke obtained from delayed coking process is a highly sought-after product, which is used in electric arc furnaces (in the form of graphite electrodes) in steel making applications. In the present communication, the published literature has been extensively analyzed and a state-of-the-art review has been written that includes: (1) importance and place of delayed coking as a residue upgrading process in the current refi ning scenario; (2) coking mechanism and kinetics; (3) design aspects; (4) feedstocks suitable for the production of needle coke; (5) characteristics of needle coke; (6) factors affecting needle coke quality and quantity; and (7) future market for needle coke. An attempt has been made to get the above-mentioned aspects together in a coherent theme so that the information is available at a glance and could be of signifi cant use for researchers and practising refi ners.La capacité de traitement des résidus pétroliers mondiaux a atteint environ 725 millions de tonnes métriques par année (MMTPA). La forte demande de carburants pour le transport et la nature de plus en plus lourde de l'huile brute ont renouvelé l'intérêt pour le traitement des résidus (fond de baril) à l'aide de divers procédés de conversion. La cokéfaction retardée, connue pour traiter virtuellement tout courant de raffi nage, qui non seulement constitue une menace sérieuse pour l'environnement, mais également implique des coûts d'élimination, a pris une importance considérable dans le scénario de raffi nage actuel. Le coke en aiguilles obtenu à partir du procédé de cokéfaction retardée est un produit très recherché, qui est employé dans les fours à arc électriques (sous la forme d'électrodes de graphite) dans les applications de fabrication de l'acier. Dans le présent article, on a analysé de m...