Production of hydrocarbons from recycled or renewable organic material

A method of producing hydrocarbons from a recycled or renewable organic material wherein the recycled or renewable organic material contains hydroxyaromatic hydrocarbon compounds, the method comprising:

• (a) providing recycled or renewable organic material;
• (b) optionally purifying the recycled or renewable organic material;
• (c) hydrotreating the recycled or renewable organic material in a presence of a hydrotreating catalyst, thereby forming a hydrocarbon stream and a phenol-containing effluent;
• (d) separating phenols from the phenol-containing effluent of step (c), by liquid-liquid extraction with a non-aromatic organic solvent that is sparingly soluble to water or by stripping, thereby forming a phenol stream and a purified water stream;
• and
• (e) recycling the phenol stream obtained in step (d) to step (c) to increase a yield of hydrocarbons obtained from step (c);
• to obtain hydrocarbons containing less than 1 wt % oxygen,
• wherein the recycled or renewable organic material includes at least one or more of crude tall oil (CTO) and its derivatives;
• tall oil pitch (TOP), tall oil fatty acid (TOFA), distilled tall oil (DTO) and crude fatty acid (CFA);
• sterol containing fats, and/or animal fats.