Abstract: There is disclosed an improvement in a selective adsorption process wherein a gaseous mixture of gas components is separated by contact with a compact, moving bed of particulate adsorbent having a selected adsorbency for one of the gas components which is thermally desorbed therefrom. The process of the invention comprises contacting the hot, thermally desorbed adsorbent with recycle lean gas in a sufficient amount and through a sufficient depth of stripping zone to effect substantially complete desorption of the rich gas component therefrom prior to introduction of the adsorbent into the fractionating zone of the process. The process is particularly useful for the separation of gaseous components which are extremely difficult to separate by cryogenic techniques.