Integrated process for removing benzene from gasoline and producing cyclohexane

An integrated, continuous process for transforming feedstock, e.g., reformate, which contains high levels of benzene into a low-benzene content feedstock that is suitable for gasoline blending initially removes benzene from the reformate by extractive distillation, then partially hydrogenating the high purity benzene into cyclohexane under mild conditions in a one-stage hydrogenation reactor, and thereafter recovering a cyclohexane product with high purity from the hydrogenation reactor effluent in a back-end purification step using extractive distillation. The initial or front-end separation step yields a low-benzene content reformate.