Adsorptive desulfurization of diesel fuel over a metal sulfide-based adsorbent

A study was carried out to develop a metal-sulfide-based adsorbent that not only can selectively adsorb sulfur compounds but can also be easily regenerated without using hydrogen gas. Two model diesel fuels (MD-1 and MD-2) were used. MD-1 contains the same molar concentration of dibenzothiophene (DBT), 4-methyldibenzothiophene, dimethyldibenzothiophene, and 1-methylnaphathalene. MD-2 contained only one sulfur compound, DBT. The total sulfur concentration in MD-1 and MD-2 is 486 and 200 ppm wt, respectively. The adsorption break-through curves for the regenerated adsorbents showed that the break-through curves for the first regenerated adsorbent and the second regenerated adsorbent coincide well with that for the fresh adsorbent, especially when the treated MD-2 amount was < 4 g/g. The adsorption capacity corresponding the break-through point at 10 ppm wt sulfur level for the first regenerated adsorbent and the second regenerated adsorbent was 0.65 and 0.66 mg-S/g-A, respectively. Thus, the spent adsorbent could be regenerable, and almost all adsorption capacity in the adsorbent could be recovered by the developed method.