Patent ID: 7857965

Claim:
A process for extracting heteroatom-containing compounds from hydrocarbonaceous oil containing non-heteroatom-containing compounds and containing recoverable amounts of heteroatom-containing compounds, the process comprising: contacting the hydrocarbonaceous oil with a solvent system comprising a mixture of a major portion of a polar solvent having a dipole moment greater than about 1 debye and a minor portion of water to selectively separate the constituents of the hydrocarbonaceous oil into a raffinate fraction and an extract fraction, the polar solvent selected to form an azeotrope with at least one low-molecular weight component of the extract or raffinate, the polar solvent and the water-in-solvent system formulated at a solvent ratio where the water is an antisolvent in an amount to inhibit solubility of heteroatom-containing compounds and the polar solvent in the raffinate, and to inhibit solubility of non-heteroatom-containing compounds in the extract, maximizing the coefficient of separation to a value of at least 50% by adjusting the solvent ratio, ratio of contacting the hyrocarbonaceous oil to the solvent system, and process conditions of contacting of the hydrocarbonaceous oil with the solvent system where the coefficient of separation is the mole percent of heteroatom-containing compounds from the hydrocarbonaceous oil that are-recovered in the extract fraction minus the mole percent of non-heteroatom-containing compounds from the hydrocarbonaceous oil that are recovered in the extract fraction.