Deep removal of 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene from model transportation diesel fuels over reactive adsorbent

Abstract

-This paper presents a new reactive adsorbent used to effectively remove 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) from model transportation diesel fuels. This reactive adsorbent was composed of formaldehyde, phosphotungstic acid and mesoporous silica gel. The experiment was based on an assumed condensation reaction of 4,6-DMDBT with formaldehyde using phosphotungstic acid as catalyst in pore spaces. The effect of temperature and the amount of formaldehyde and phosphotungstic acid loaded on the substrate were investigated in a batch system. In the breakthrough experiment, three different model diesel fuels containing 1000 mg/kg 4,6-DMDBT were pumped through a fixed-bed reactor packed with reactive adsorbent at constant temperature and atmospheric pressure, respectively. The experimental results showed that sulfur-free model fuel was obtained at 80°C despite the presence of aromatics. The sulfur capacity of regenerated reactive adsorbent was almost totally recovered.

TiO2 loading on activated carbon: preparation, characterization, desulfurization performance and isotherm of the adsorption of dibenzothiophene from model fuel

“…Therefore, the desulfurization of hydrocarbon fuels has become one of the most important processes in petroleum refining [15]. Desulfurization processes can be classified according to several aspects, including the hydrogen role (hydrodesulfurization HDS and non-HDS) [16,17], the nature of processes (chemical and/or physical), the treatment method of the organosulfur compounds (decomposed, separated without decomposition or both separated then decomposed) [16], the degree of total sulfur reduction in the refined fuels and cost of the processes [8]. Each desulfurization method applies to specific sulfur compounds and has its advantages and limitations depending on the way how sulfur compounds are transformed [18].…”

“…Therefore, other alternatives or supplementary non-HDS techniques have been considered to be sufficient to meet the EPA limits [21,22], including adsorptive desulfurization, extractive desulfurization, bio-desulfurization (BDS), Oxidative desulfurization (ODS), precipitative desulfurization [9], and desulfurization through ionic solutions [25]. Among these promising methods, adsorptive desulfurization (ADS) is regarded as an important, efficient, and most widely used technique which has been intensively studied and described [17,26,27]. ADS can be used to remove sulfur compounds from petroleum-derived fuels in a fixed bed or a batch reactor.…”

Separation of Sulfur-Containing Compounds From Diesel by Oxidation Followed by Solvent Extraction in a Single Drop Column

“…Furthermore, this process has limited capability for removal of several refractory sulfurcontaining compounds, including heterocyclic sulfurcontaining compounds such as dibenzothiophene and its derivatives. Thus, various new desulfurization technologies, such as electrochemical oxidation (Wang et al, 2007), extraction using ionic liquids and polar solvents (Seeberger and Jess, 2010), oxidative desulfurization (ODS) (Ismagilov et al, 2011), selective adsorption (Wang et al, 2012;Hernández-Maldonado and Yang, 2003), and bio-desulfurization (Soleimani et al, 2007) have been proposed as HDS alternative or complementary methods. The oxidation/ extraction desulfurization process is an attractive method due to its mild operating conditions, no need of hydrogen, and high potential to remove HDS refractory sulfur-containing compounds (Hassan et al, 2013;Ito and Van Veen, 2006;Mjalli et al, 2014).…”