Conventional and Upcoming Sulfur‐Cleaning Technologies for Petroleum Fuel: A Review

Abstract

Environmental regulations on the quality of liquid fuels continue to create more requirements to produce a near‐to‐zero sulfur content. The hydrodesulfurization process has a high running cost and suffers from incomplete removal of sulfur compounds, particularly alkylated dibenzothiophene. Recently, oxidative and adsorption desulfurization procedures showed high potential to take part in commercial desulfurization. The advantages and disadvantage of the newly proposed procedures are outlined and reviewed. Undoubtedly, adsorptive‐based methods have achieved many advances in this area. Particularly, surface imprinted polymers and metal–organic frameworks have manifested an excellent tendency to remove bulky sulfur compounds with minimum experimental effort. This review presents information about the workability, efficiency, and mechanisms of the current desulfurization methodologies for diesel as a common transportation fuel. More attention is given to adsorptive desulfurization as a promising technology.

Mechanistic and adsorption equilibrium studies of dibenzothiophene‐rich‐diesel on MnO2‐loaded‐activated carbon: Surface characterization

“…In a previous research , adsorption value of 19.6 mgS g −1 was reported for MnO 2 ‐loaded AC (loading value of 7.3% Mn) and the main finding in the current research was the better adsorption of S‐compound at higher Mn loadings. For more details on the adsorption capacity of most known adsorbents, the readers would consult the work of Al‐Degs and coworkers . The reported capacities in this work and in the previous work were high when compared with other adsorbents .…”

“…For more details on the adsorption capacity of most known adsorbents, the readers would consult the work of Al‐Degs and coworkers . The reported capacities in this work and in the previous work were high when compared with other adsorbents .…”

“…Both equilibrium and kinetics of dibenzothiophene adsorption were investigated in the literature . A full review about the conventional and upcoming sulfur‐cleaning technologies for petroleum fuel is described in reference .…”

Desulfurization of model and real fuels by extraction and oxidation processes using an indenylmolybdenum tricarbonyl pre‐catalyst

“…Conventional hydrodesulfurization (HDS) technology is unsuited to deep desulfurization since severe operating conditions are required (such as high hydrogen pressures and temperatures) and even then the removal of refractory sulfur‐containing heterocycles, such as 4,6‐dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6‐DMDBT), remains a major obstacle. Alternative desulfurization technologies are therefore needed to either supplement or replace HDS . One of the most promising is oxidative desulfurization (ODS) .…”

Process Analysis for the Production of Hydrogen and Liquid Fuels from Oil Shale

“…Shale oil contains a considerable amount of sulfur, nitrogen, and metals such as nickel and vanadium, which are heteroatoms that cause many problems, including instability of fuel in transportation or storage . To cope with the instability challenge of shale oil and to produce more useful light HVHFs, hydrogenation or hydrocracking are favorable methods to apply . For the hydrogenation of shale oil, hydrogen is required and the outsourcing of hydrogen is also a challenge faced by the oil shale upgrading process …”