Patent ID: 8894845

Claim:
A process for desulfurizing a hydrocarbon feedstream, comprising: a) mixing at least a portion of a hydrocarbon feedstream having an API gravity of less than 19 with an aqueous alkali metal salt reagent solution to form a first mixed reactor feedstream; b) exposing at least a portion of the first mixed reactor feedstream to a first desulfurization reactor operated under first effective desulfurization conditions to form a first desulfurized reactor product stream comprising desulfurized oil, spent alkali metals, and coke; c) separating the first desulfurized reactor product stream to form at least a first low-boiling point vapor fraction and a first reactor product liquid fraction; d) mixing at least a portion of the first reactor product liquid fraction with water to form a first wash water separator feedstream; e) sending the first wash water separator feedstream to a first wash water separator vessel wherein in the first wash water separator vessel, the first wash water separator feedstream forms three distinct layers as flows: a first desulfurized oil product layer, a first emulsion phase layer, and a first aqueous spent alkali metal layer; f) removing each of the three distinct layers separately from the first wash water separator vessel to separately form a first desulfurized oil product stream, a first emulsion phase stream, and a first aqueous spent alkali metal stream; wherein at least 50 wt % of the total coke in the first desulfurized reactor product stream is removed in the first emulsion phase stream, and the first desulfurized oil product stream has a lower sulfur content by wt % than the hydrocarbon feedstream, and the first desulfurized oil product stream has a API gravity of at least 20 and a viscosity of less than or equal to 40 centistokes at 40° C.