Optimized Ultrasound-Assisted Oxidative Desulfurization Process of Simulated Fuels over Activated Carbon-Supported Phosphotungstic Acid

Recent technological advancements respond to the call to minimize/eliminate emissions to the atmosphere. However, on the average, fuel oils which is one of the major raw materials, is found to increase in sulfur concentration due to a phenomenon called thermal maturation. As such, a deeper desulfurization process is needed to obtain low/ultra-low sulfur fuel oils. In the present study, the ultrasound assisted oxidative desulfurization (UAOD) processes using the H2O2 and HPW-AC oxidizing system applied to simulated fuel (~2800 ppm sulfur in the form of dibenzothiophene, benzothiophene, and thiophene dissolved in toluene), were optimized. After the pre-saturation of the HPW-AC with the simulated fuel, H2O2 was added just before the reaction was commenced under ultrasonic irradiation. After the application of both 2k-factorial design of experiment for screening and Face-Centered Design of Experiment for optimization, it was found that 25.52 wt% of H2O2 concentration, 983.9 mg of catalyst dose, 9.52 mL aqueous phase per 10 mL of the organic phase and 76.36 minutes of ultrasonication time would render 94.74% oxidation of the sulfur compounds in the simulated fuel. After the application of the optimized parameters to kerosene and employing a 4-cycle extraction using acetonitrile, 99% of the original sulfur content were removed from the kerosene using the UAOD optimized parameters. The desulfurization process resulted in a low-sulfur kerosene which retained its basic fuel properties such as density, viscosity and calorific value.