Treatment of sour hydrocarbon distillate

Claim 1

A TREATING PROCESS WHICH COMPRISES CONTACTING SOUR HYDROCARBON DISTILLATE WITH AN ALKALINE SOLUTION IN AN EXTRACTION ZONE, SEPARATELY WITHDRAWING THEREFROM A HYDROCARBON DISTILLATE REDUCED IN MERCAPTAN CONTENT AND AN ALKALINE SOLUTION CONTAINING SULFUR COMPOUNDS, CONTACTING THE LAST MENTIONED ALKALINE SOLUTION WITH AN OXYGEN-CONTAINING GAS IN THE PRESENCE OF A PHTHALOCYANINE CATALYST TO SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETELY REGENERATE THE ALKALINE SOLUTION AND TO OXIDIZE THE SULFUR COMPONENTS TO DISULFIDES IN A REGENERATION ZONE, WITHDRAWING THEREFROM REGENERATED ALKALINE SOLUTION CONTAINING FINELY DISPERSED DISULFIDES AND PASSING THE MIXTURE THROUGH A BED OF COALESCING AGENT AND THEN INTO A SETTLING ZONE, SEPARATING THE MIXTURE IN THE SETTLING ZONE INTO A DISULFIDE PHASE AND AN ALKALINE SOLUTION PHASE, SEPARATELY WITHDRAWING EACH PHASE, AND RETURNING AT LEAST A MAJOR PORTION OF THE SEPRATED ALKALINE SOLUTION TO SAID EXTRACTION ZONE FOR FURTHER USE THEREIN TO EXTRACT MERCAPTANS FROM SOUR HYDROCARBON DISTILLATE.