Patent ID: 8343336

Claim:
A solvent extraction process for the desulfurization of a whole crude oil feedstream that includes one or more aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds, the process comprising: a. mixing the whole crude oil with a solvent feedstream containing one or more extractive solvents for the one or more aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds; b. separating as a first phase whole crude oil having a reduced content of aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds and as a second phase the one or more solvents and dissolved aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds from the whole crude oil; c. recovering the first phase for further processing; d. subjecting the second phase to a solvent regeneration step to recover a solvent for use in step (a), above; e. recovering aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds; f. subjecting the recovered aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds to hydroprocessing; and g. recovering a second liquid hydrocarbon stream having a reduced content of aromatic sulfur-containing hydrocarbon compounds from the hydroprocessor.