preferably is heated to a temperature in the range of about 100 u00b0 f to about 200 u00b0 f the admixture is agitated sufficiently to allow contact between the hydrocarbon and aqueous solution the admixture is then allowed to stratify forming an aqueous layer and a hydrocarbon layer the layers are then separated the aqueous layer contains basic material recovery surfactant and a part of the metal alkaryl sulfonate my process usually provides better than a 40 weight percent recovery of the sulfonate from the hydrocarbon it is readily apparent that using a multi stage adaptation of my process could result in recovering substantially all of the sulfonate present in the hydrocarbon for example assuming a 50 percent recovery a five stage process would recover better than 96 percent of the sulfonate in order to illustrate the nature of the present invention still more clearly the following examples will be given it is to be understood however that the invention is not to be limited to the specific conditions or details set forth in these examples except insofar as such limitations are specified in the appended claims sulfonate a sodium monoalkylbenzene sulfonate having an equivalent weight of 334 52 weight percent active ingredient 34 a 34 sodium salt of a sulfated ethoxylate derived from a c 12 c 18 linear primary alcohol blend and containing 9 25 moles of ethylene oxide 20 percent active ingredient 34 b 34 an ethoxylated octylphenol containing 30 moles of ethylene oxide per.