Supercritical water desulfurization (SCWDS) has potential as a technique for removing sulfur from feedstocks such as heavy oil and bitumen. However, a fundamental understanding of SCWDS (such as the underlying chemical mechanisms, relative rates of desulfurization, and the role of SCW and hydrocarbons) is limited. In the present work, we have gained molecular-level insights into this process by measuring the kinetics of decomposition of a variety of organic sulfides in the presence of hydrocarbons and supercritical water in a continuously fed stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). The results are consistent with a free-radical mechanism, with hydrogen abstraction from the sulfide as the rate-determining step. The decomposition rates of the aliphatic and aromatic sulfides varied depending on their molecular structure, with conversions after 31 min at 400 °C ranging from less than 3% (our detection limits) to more than 90%. These differences in the reactivity correlate with the estimated heats of reaction for the critical hydrogen abstraction. The decomposition rates of the sulfides were affected by the presence of hydrocarbon carriers, with the rates being higher in the presence of alkanes than in the presence of toluene, as expected for a free-radical process. Product distributions and rates of radical-induced alkane cracking during this process were likewise affected by the presence of different sulfides. The decomposition of several different sulfides is consistent with 3 / 2 power kinetics, providing further evidence that the reaction proceeds via a radical mechanism. The knowledge developed in the current work provides a fundamental basis for further improvements in SCWDS.

Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) removes organic sulfur compounds from liquid transportation fuels (including diesel and jet fuels) in a two-step process: (1) chemical oxidation to form sulfones and (2) adsorption (or extraction) of the sulfones onto a polar adsorbent such as alumina. Continued development of ODS is limited in part by a lack of understanding of how different sulfur types in real fuels respond to its constituent oxidation and extraction steps. We treated two JP-8 jet fuels (described by here as 3773 and 4177, respectively) using the two-step ODS process. These two fuels had similar physical properties and hydrocarbon compositions but differing sulfur contents: the 3773 fuel was 720 ppm w , while that of the 4177 fuel sulfur content was 1400 ppm w . For the two-step ODS process, we used activated carbon-promoted performic acid as the oxidant and activated alumina as the adsorbent. The complete ODS treatment reduced the sulfur content of the 3773 fuel to a level below the detection limits of our total sulfur analyzer (40 ppm w ), implying >94% sulfur removal. However, ODS treatment reduced the sulfur content of the 4177 fuel to 350 ppm w , or 75% sulfur removal. To investigate this discrepancy at the molecular level, we targeted sulfur compounds in the stock and treated fuels using one-dimensional gas chromatography and comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography with both sulfur selective detection and time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Initially, the 4177 fuel was dominated by a suite of compounds identified as sulfides, disulfides, and thiophenes (SDT), whereas the 3773 fuel was dominated by its benzothiophene (BT) content. The SDT compounds were easily oxidized, but the corresponding sulfones were not efficiently removed using the alumina adsorbent. The BT compounds were more resistant to oxidation than the SDT compounds, but the oxidized BT compounds were more efficiently removed using the adsorbent than either the BT compounds or oxidized SDT compounds. Development of ODS technologies should account for the different responses of different sulfur compounds to the oxidation and adsorption treatments.

The cleavage of C-S linkages plays a key role in fuel processing and organic geochemistry. Water is known to affect these processes, and several hypotheses have been proposed, but the mechanism has been elusive. Here we use both experiment and theory to demonstrate that supercritical water reacts with intermediates formed during alkyl sulfide decomposition. During hexyl sulfide decomposition in supercritical water, pentane and CO + CO2 were detected in addition to the expected six carbon products. A multi-step reaction sequence for hexyl sulfide reacting with supercritical water is proposed which explains the surprising products, and quantum chemical calculations provide quantitative rates that support the proposed mechanism. The key sequence is cleavage of one C-S bond to form a thioaldehyde via radical reactions, followed by a pericyclic addition of water to the C[double bond, length as m-dash]S bond to form a geminal mercaptoalcohol. The mercaptoalcohol decomposes into an aldehyde and H2S either directly or via a water-catalyzed 6-membered ring transition state. The aldehyde quickly decomposes into CO plus pentane by radical reactions. The time is ripe for quantitative modelling of organosulfur reaction kinetics based on modern quantum chemistry.

High concentrations of fuel-range hydrocarbons may be recovered from heavier alkyl-aromatic compounds in crude oil after supercritical water (SCW) treatment. Arabian Heavy (AH) crude oil was treated in SCW and analyzed using two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC FID). Cracking mechanisms were investigated using the model compound hexylbenzene under similar SCW treatment conditions. The results of the model compound experiments were compared to predictions of a kinetic model built by the Reaction Mechanism Generator (RMG). AH crude cracked significantly during SCW treatment. The GC-observable mass fraction increased by 90%. We conducted studies on the distilled samples of crude oil, and found that significant changes in the composition of the SCW-treated 'heavy' fraction occurred. Significant formation of aliphatic hydrocarbons and small-chain BTX-type compounds were found in the SCW-processed samples. Hexylbenzene conversions differed between the crude oil studies and the model compound studies. It is possible that hexylbenzene (and other alkylbenzene) conversion is hindered by preferential cracking of heavier hydrocarbons in the bulk crude oil solution. The mechanistic model run for the cracking of hydrocarbons in SCW treatments of the model compound hexylbenzene resulted in the major liquid products toluene, styrene and ethylbenzene. The selectivity of ethylbenzene and styrene changed over time. The apparent conversion of styrene into ethyl benzene was possibly via a reverse disproportionation reaction. Ultimately a mechanism was built that serves as a basis for understanding the kinetics of hydrocarbon cracking in SCW. Introduction Supercritical water (SCW) is seen as an attractive upgrading and desulfurization medium for crude oil processing. SCW has unique properties that set it apart as an ideal solvent for organic reactions, including a low dielectric constant, high ion product and high diffusivity [1]. Industry has recently taken an active interest in using water as a reactive solvent, with patents approved for oil and bio-crude oil upgrading [2-5]. This is partly because there is published literature that has demonstrated that heavy hydrocarbons exposed to supercritical water produce significant concentrations of gas and light liquid products[5-8]. It has also been shown that water may enhance the production of benzene, toluene and xylene (BTX) compounds from crude oil in the presence of sulfur [9]. As such, it is conceivable that SCW could be used as a two-in-one unit

Two-dimensional gas chromatography with sulfur chemiluminescence detection (GC × GC-SCD) is applied to understand the changes in alkylated thiophenes, benzothiophenes (BTs), and dibenzothiophenes (DBTs) during supercritical water (SCW) upgrading of Arabian Heavy crude oil. It is shown that SCW treatment of heavy crude oil has several important effects: (1) The amount of BTs and DBTs in the distillate range increase, primarily due to cracking of heavier compounds. (2) Most of the long side chains on the thiophenes, BTs, and DBTs crack to form the corresponding thiophenic compounds with shorter side chains. (3) A small amount of the alkylated thiophenes undergo ring closure to form BTs during SCW treatment, and a small amount of the alkylated BTs appear to form DBTs in a similar way. As reported earlier, SCW treatment removes some of the sulfur from the oil phase, presumably as hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Distilling the heavy crude oil into light and heavy fractions and treating these fractions individually with SCW showed these effects more clearly. Model compound studies on hexylthiophenes confirm that SCW cleaves alkyl chains bound to thiophenes.