Denitrogenation of quinoline and indole by selective adsorption using modified zeolite and sulfide adsorbents

Ultra-deep HDS of diesel fuel has become an important research area because of increasingly stringent environmental regulations on sulfur content in fuel. The presence of nitrogen compounds inhibits deep HDS, and thus removal of nitrogen compounds is desired for deep desulfurization. The denitrogenation of quinoline and indole by selective adsorption using modified zeolite and sulfide adsorbents was carried out. Adsorptive denitrogenation of the model fuel, which contains quinoline and indole in decane, over zeolite-based adsorbents and sulfide adsorbents was conducted at room temperature and 80°C. CuCe/Y-zeolite might be a promising adsorbent for removal of nitrogen compounds from middle-distillate oil to improve the deep HDS performance. The adsorptive selectivity data also provided a new insight into the fundamental understanding of the effect of the coexisting nitrogen compounds on deep HDS. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 228th ACS National Meeting (Philadelphia, PA 8/22-26/2004).