to 5000 psia fccu catalyst fines are added to the ebullated bed in an amount of 15 wt to 21 wt of total catalyst comprising hydrocracking catalyst and fines a hydrocracked oil is recovered characterized by having a reduced sediment content application_number US 32111289 A description a high boiling range residual hydrocarbon oil derived from petroleum or coal sources is catalytically hydrotreated in the presence of relatively large volumes of hydrogen which results in hydrocracking of the oil to fuel boiling range products as well as hydrodesulfurization and metals removal hydrocarbon oils particularly susceptible to this catalytic hydrotreatment include vacuum residuum atmospheric residuum heavy gas oils coker gas oils high gravity crude oils and other high boiling hydrocarbon oil fractions these high boiling range hydrocarbon oils contain relatively large quantities of pentane insoluble asphaltenes these asphaltenes readily polymerize at the high reactor temperatures of the ebullated bed process causing plugging of catalyst pores and preventing fresh hydrocarbon oil from coming in contact with active catalyst sites the rapid deactivation of catalyst in the ebullated bed process has been attributed to these asphaltenes furthermore the plugging of downstream equipment is attributed to polymerized sediment an anomaly has been discovered in the ebullated bed hydrocracking process it was discovered that feedstocks containing higher amounts of fluid catalytic cracking fines were hydrocracked to a product oil containing less total sediment than feedstocks containing lower amounts or free of catalyst fines the mechanism of the invention is not known with mathematical certainty it is postulated that active metals on fccu catalyst fines promote cracking or hydrogenation of multiring sediment forming components at ebullated bed hydrocracking.