Efficient desulfurization of gasoline fuel using ionic liquid extraction as a complementary process to adsorptive desulfurization

The extractive desulfurization of a model gaso- line containing several alkyl thiols and aromatic thiophenic compounds was investigated using two imidazolium-based ionic liquids （ILs）, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrachloroaluminate, and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium te- trafluoroborate, as extractants. A fractional factorial design of experiments was employed to evaluate the effects and possible interactions of several process variables. Analysis of variance tests indicated that the number of extraction steps and the IL/gasoline volume ratio were of statistically highly significant, but none of the interactions were significant. The results showed that the desulfurization efficiency of the model gasoline by the ILs could reach 95.2 % under the optimal conditions. The optimized conditions were applied to study the extraction of thiophenic compounds in model gasoline and several real gasoline samples; the following order was observed in their separation： benzothio- phenc 〉 thiophcne 〉 3-methylthiophene 〉 2-methylthiophene, with 96.1% removal efficiency for benzothiophene. The IL extraction was successfully applied as a complementary process to the adsorptive desulfurization with acti- vated Raney nickel and acetonitrile solvent. The results indicated that the adsorptive process combined with IL extraction could provide high efficiency and selectivity, which can be regarded as a promising energy efficient desulfurization strategy for production of low-sulfur gasoline.

Process design for gas condensate desulfurization and synthesis of nano-13X zeolite adsorbent: equilibrium and dynamic studies

This paper summarizes the results of a study of adsorption of sulfur compounds from a high-sulfur feed on improved spherical-shaped nano-AgX zeolite. For this purpose, the nano-AgX zeolite was initially synthesized and improved with silver compounds such as silver nitrate, and then it was utilized in the adsorption process. In order to investigate the equilibrium and dynamics of the adsorption process, adsorptive desulfurization of real feed(i.e., sour gas condensate from the South Pars gas field) was carried out in batch and continuous processes under several operating conditions; a temperature-dependent Langmuir isotherm model was used to fit the equilibrium data. The value of monolayer adsorption capacity(q_m) and adsorption enthalpy(ΔH) were calculated to be 1.044 mmol/g and 16.8 kJ/mol, respectively. Furthermore, a detailed theoretical model was employed in order to model the breakthrough experiments. The results revealed that an increase in the feed flow rate and 1/T values will cause linear and exponential increase in the total mass transfer coefficient(ks). Isotherm and dynamic breakthrough models were found to be in agreement with the experimental data.