Patent ID: 8608952

Claim:
A process for de-acidifying a hydrocarbon feed comprising: (a) contacting the hydrocarbon feed containing an organic acid with a feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid to produce a mixture comprising the hydrocarbon and the feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid; (b) separating the mixture to produce a hydrocarbon effluent and a feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid effluent, the feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid effluent comprising the organic acid; and (c) optionally adding a de-emulsifier to at least one of the contacting step (a) and the separating step (b); wherein the feed immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid comprises tetrabutylphosphonium methanesulfonate; and wherein the organic acid content of the hydrocarbon is reduced by at least 65-70% based on the Total Acid Numbers of the hydrocarbon feed; further comprising contacting the ionic liquid effluent with a regeneration solvent and separating the ionic liquid effluent from the regeneration solvent to produce an extract stream comprising the organic acid and a regenerated ionic liquid stream comprising the feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid, wherein the regeneration solvent comprises water and the regenerated ionic liquid stream further comprises water and wherein the hydrocarbon effluent comprises the feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid, the process further comprising washing at least a portion of the hydrocarbon effluent with water to produce a washed hydrocarbon effluent and a spent water stream, the spent water stream comprising the feed-immiscible phosphonium ionic liquid; wherein at least a portion of the spent water stream is at least a portion of the regeneration solvent.