A product of reduced sulfur content is produced from a feedstock which is comprised of a mixture of hydrocarbons and includes sulfur-containing aromatic compounds as unwanted impurities. The process involves separating the feedstock by fractional distillation into a lower boiling fraction which contains the more volatile sulfur-containing aromatic impurities and at least one higher boiling fraction which contains the less volatile sulfur-containing aromatic impurities. Each fraction is then separately subjected to reaction conditions which are effective to convert at least a portion of its content of sulfur-containing aromatic impurities to higher boiling sulfur-containing products by alkylation with an alkylating agent in the presence of an acidic catalyst. The higher boiling sulfur-containing products are removed by fractional distillation.