Separation of organic compounds

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR SEPARATING HYDROCARBONS FROM AN AQUEOUS SOLUTION OF WATER-SOLUBLE OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS CONTAINING A POLAR GROUP WHICH COMPRISES: SUBJECTING SAID SOLUTION TO EXTRACTION WITH A RELATIVELY LOW-BOILING HYDROCARBON AS A SOLVENT TO OBTAIN AN EXTRACT CONTAINING HYDROCARBONS AND A RAFFINATE CONTAINING OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND SOLVENT; SEPARATELY SUBJECTING AT LEAST A PORTION OF SAID EXTRACT TO DISTILLATION TO OBTAIN A RELATIVELY HIGH-BOILING FRACTION CONTAINING HYDROCARBONS AND A RELATIVELY LOW-BOILING AZEOTROPIC FRACTION CONTAINING SOLVENT AND OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; SEPARATELY SUBJECTING AT LEAST A PORTION OF SAID RAFFINATE TO DISTILLATION TO OBTAIN A RELATIVELY HIGHBOILING FRACTION CONTAINING OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMMPOUNDS AND SUBSTANTIALLY FREE FROM HYDROCARBONS, AND A RELATIVELY LOW-BOILING AZEOTROPIC FRACTION CONTAINING SOLVENT AND OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS; COMBINING SAID AZEOTROPIC FRACTIONS; WATER-WASHING MIXED SOLVENT AND OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS OBTAINED FROM THE AZEOTROPIC FRACTIONS THUS COMBINED TO FORM AN AQUEOUS PHASE COMPRIISNG OXYGENATED ORGANIC COMPOUNDS AND A HYDROCARBON PHASE COMPRISING SOLVENT; COMBINING AT LEAST A PORTION OF SAID AQUEOUS PHASE WITH FURTHER QUANTITIES OF SAID RAFFINATE FOR FURTHER TREATMENT IN SAID LAST-MENTIONED DISTILLATION STEP; AND TRANSFERRING THE MIXTURE THUS COMBINED TO SAID LAST-MENTIONED DISTILLATION STEP.