Hydrocarbon treating

Claim 1

A HYDROCARBON TREATING PROCESS, COMPRISING: FEEDING INTO AN ACCUMULATION ZONE A HYDROCARBON FEED COMPRISING A LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT AND A HIGHERBOILING COMPONENT AND CONTAINING A CONTAMINANT; REMOVING OVERHEAD FROM SAID ACCUMULATION ZONE IN VAPOR STATE AT A TEMPERATURE INTERMEDIATE THE BOILING POINTS OF SAID LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT AND SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT, A TREATER FEED STREAM COMPRISING AN EQUILBRIUM MIXTURE OF SAID LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT AND SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT AND SAID CONTAMINANT; AND REMOVING AN EQULIBRIUM LIQUID MIXTURE FROM THE ACCUMULATION ZONE CONTACTING SAID TREATER FEED STREAM IN AN EXTRACTION ZONE, WITH A LIQUID TREATING AGENT HAVING AN AFFINTIY FOR SAID CONTAMINANT, AT A TEMPERATURE INTERMEDIATE THE BOILING POINTS OF SAID LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT AND SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT AT THE PRESSURE OF SAID EXTRACTION ZONE: WITHDRAWING A STREAM CONTAINING SUBSTANTIALLY ALL OF SAID TREATING AGENT AND SAID CONTAMINANT, FROM SAID EXTRACTION ZONE; WITHDRAWING A SUBSTANTIALLY CONTAMINANT-FREE HYDROCARBON STREAM FROM SAID EXTRACTION ZONE; SEPARATING SAID RELATIVELY CONTAMINANT-FREE HYDROCARBON STREAM INTO A FIRST FRACTION CONTAINING THE PREDOMINANT AMOUNT OF SAID LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT AND A SECOND FRACTION CONTAINING THE PREDOMINANT AMOUNT OF SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT; RECOVERING SAID SECOND FRACTION AS A PRODUCT OF THE PROCESS; AND RECYCLING A SUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF SAID FIRST FRACTION TO SAID HYDROCARBON FEED, TO INCREASE THE RATIO OF THE AMOUNT OF SAID LOWER-BOILING COMPONENT IN SAID FEED TO THE AMOUNT OF SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT IN SAID FEED TO MAINTAIN THE DESIRED FLOW OF SAID HIGHER-BOILING COMPONENT IN THE VAPOR STATE AT SAID TEMPERATURE AND SAID PRESSURE IN SAID EXTRACTION ZONE.