Process for upgrading a hydrocarbon fraction

Claim 1

A process for upgrading a hydrocarbon fraction containing paraffins, olefins, olefin-equivalents, or acetylenes, as such or as substituents on ring compounds, and sulfurous and metallic contaminants comprising cracking, desulfurizing, and demetalating the hydrocarbon fraction by contacting said hydrocarbon fraction with a water-containing fluid under super-atmospheric pressure and at a temperature in the range of from about 705° to about 900° F., in the absence of an externally supplied catalyst for cracking, desulfurization, or demetalation, and of externally supplied hydrogen, wherein sufficient water is present in the water-containing fluid and said pressure is sufficiently high so that the water in the water-containing fluid has a density of at least 0.10 gram per milliliter and serves as an effective solvent for the hydrocarbon fraction; and lowering said temperature or pressure or both, to thereby make the water in the water-containing fluid a less effective solvent for the hydrocarbon fraction and to thereby form separate phases and solid elemental sulfur wherein essentially all the sulfur removed from the hydrocarbon fraction is in the form of solid elemental sulfur.