Patent ID: 6875341

Claim:
A process for upgrading hydrocarbonaceous oil comprised of heteroatom-containing compounds and non-heteroatom-containing compounds 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 carbonaceous oil into a raffinate fraction and an extract fraction, 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, the solvent ratio, ratio of contacting the hydrocarbonaceous oil to the solvent system, and process conditions of contacting of the hydrocarbonaceous oil with the solvent system such that a coefficient of separation is at least 50%, where the coefficient of separation is the mole percent of heteroatom-containing compounds from the carbonaceous oil that are recovered in the extract fraction minus the mole percent of non-heteroatom-containing compounds from the carbonaceous oil that are recovered in the extract fraction.