Deep Oxidative Desulfurization of Diesel Fuels by Acidic Ionic Liquids

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2011, 50 (20), pp 11690–11697
Deep Oxidative Desulfurization of Diesel Fuels by Acidic Ionic Liquids
Guangren Yu, Jingjing Zhao, Dandan Song, Charles Asumana, Xiaoyue Zhang, and Xiaochun Chen*
chenxc@mail.buct.edu.cn
Beijing Key Laboratory of Membrane Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 100029 Beijing, P.R. China
Abstract
Ionic liquids (ILs) are the subject of intensive research on the removal of thiophenic sulfur species from fuels.  Authors studied deep oxidative desulfurization of diesel fuels by six functional acidic ILs, in which ILs are used as both extractant and catalyst.. The ILs include both Lewis acidic species and Brønsted acidic species where different acidic groups such as −H, −COOH, and −SO₃H are appended to the cations. Except for [CH₂COOHmim]HSO₄, both Brønsted and Lewis acidic ILs are capable of effectively removing dibenzothiophene from model diesel fuels.
Authors explored the effects of temperature, molar ratio of O/S, mass ratio of IL/oil, and IL regeneration on desulfurization for [C₄mim]Cl/2ZnCl₂ and [SO₃H–C₄mim]HSO₄. The desulfurization ability is not sensitive to the mass ratio of IL/oil. The ILs can be recycled six times with negligible loss in activity. [C₄mim]Cl/2ZnCl₂ can reduce the sulfur content in real commercial diesel fuel from 64 to 7.9 ppm with a sulfur removal of 87.7%.
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