Deep desulfurization of diesel fuels by selective adsorption with activated carbons

Adsorptive desulfurization of a model diesel fuel and a real diesel fuel was carried out over the commercial activated carbons and modified activated carbons at ambient conditions. The adsorptive performance of the activated carbons, including the adsorptive capacity and selectivity was examined. The adsorptive capacity of the activated carbons increased with increasing equilibrium concentration of sulfur in the liquid phase. The adsorptive capacity was about 18 mg/g when the equilibrium concentration of sulfur in the model diesel fuel was 400 ppm wt. The spent activated carbon could be regenerated by solvent washing. The adsorptive mechanism was also elucidated based on experimental results. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 228th ACS National Meeting (Philadelphia, PA 8/22-26/2004).