Aerobic Oxidative Desulfurization: A Promising Approach for Sulfur Removal from Fuels

Abstract

Cleaning up their act: Sulfur compounds in fuels can be selectively converted into SO2 by mixing the fuel with a small amount of air at around 300 °C at ambient pressure in a continuous‐flow reactor packed with catalysts such as Pt/CeO2, Cu/CeO2, and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3. The aerobic oxidative desulfurization process opens up a cost‐effective new technology for cleaning fuels.

Immobilized fenton‐like ionic liquid: Catalytic performance for oxidative desulfurization

“…1 In view of the importance of desulfurization, several methods for desulfurization of fuels have been reported, such as hydrodesulfurization (HDS), 2,3 extraction, [4][5][6] adsorption, 7-9 oxidation, [10][11][12][13] and bioprocess. 14 HDS process has been used to eliminate sulfur compounds for industry purpose for the past few years; however, this method suffers from severe operating conditions (high temperature, high hydrogen pressure, and capital cost) and it is less effective for removing refractory sulfur compounds, such as benzothiophene (BT), dibenzothiophene (DBT), and their alky derivatives.…”

Design and synthesis of W-containing mesoporous material with excellent catalytic activity for the oxidation of 4,6-DMDBT in fuels

“…For instance, extractive desulfurization (EDS) [9,10], adsorptive desulfurization (ADS) [11,12], oxidative desulfurization (ODS) [13][14][15][16][17][18] and biological desulfurization (BDS) [19,20]. Among all the processes, ODS is a promising process with high desulfurization efficiency under mild reaction conditions [21][22][23][24]. The most popular oxidant used in the ODS system is hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) for its high oxidation efficiency and water is the only oxidative product after reaction [25][26][27].…”

Cu-Zn-Al-O catalysts for the oxidative desulfurization of dibenzothiophene, a typical sulfur-containing compound of the diesel fraction

“…In the scientific literature, the vapor phase oxidative desulfurization of motor fuels is represented by few works, in particular, by works of Yong Lu et al on aero bic desulfurization of fuels in the presence of Cu/CeO 2 , Pt/CeO 2 , and CuZnAl catalysts [4,5]. These papers demonstrated that, in the presence of these catalysts, sulfur as a part of sulfur containing organic molecules can be oxidized selectively to SO 2 by the introduction of small amounts of oxygen into the fuel at 300°C under atmospheric pressure.…”

“…These papers demonstrated that, in the presence of these catalysts, sulfur as a part of sulfur containing organic molecules can be oxidized selectively to SO 2 by the introduction of small amounts of oxygen into the fuel at 300°C under atmospheric pressure. The CuO/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 catalyst exhibited the highest activity in the oxidative desulfur ization of diesel fuels, providing 79% efficiency [5]. It was assumed [4,5] that this is due to the high activity of Pt/CeO 2 and Cu/CeO 2 in olefin oxidation, which results in a decrease in the amount of oxygen spent on the oxidation of organosulfur molecules.…”

“…The CuO/ZnO/Al 2 O 3 catalyst exhibited the highest activity in the oxidative desulfur ization of diesel fuels, providing 79% efficiency [5]. It was assumed [4,5] that this is due to the high activity of Pt/CeO 2 and Cu/CeO 2 in olefin oxidation, which results in a decrease in the amount of oxygen spent on the oxidation of organosulfur molecules. Indeed, these works give low values of oxygen consumption for the oxidation of organosulfur compounds.…”