We introduce an algorithm for solving two-sided space-fractional partial differential equations. The space-fractional derivatives we consider here are left-handed and right-handed Riemann–Liouville fractional derivatives which are expressed by using Hadamard finite-part integrals. We approximate the Hadamard finite-part integrals by using piecewise quadratic interpolation polynomials and obtain a numerical approximation of the space-fractional derivative with convergence order ${O(\Delta x^{3- \alpha })}$,
${1<\alpha <2}$. A shifted implicit finite difference method is applied for solving the two-sided space-fractional partial differential equation and we prove that the order of convergence of the finite difference method is ${O (\Delta t + \Delta x^{\min (3- \alpha , \beta )})}$, ${1< \alpha <2}$, ${\beta >0}$, where ${\Delta t,\Delta x}$ denote the time and space stepsizes, respectively. Numerical examples where the solutions have varying degrees of smoothness are presented and compared with the exact analytical solution to compare the practical performance of the method with the theoretical order of convergence.