abstract
The concurrent removal of both nitrogen- and sulfur containing compounds, from simulated fossil fuels, was studied in this work. Four different deep eutectic solvents (DES) were prepared and ranked according their performance to remove thiophene (Th), dibenzothiophene (DBT), pyridine (Py), and carbazole (Carb), from n-heptane in binary mixtures. The simultaneous extractive desulfurization (EDS) and extractive denitrogenation (EDN) was then performed with the TBPB:Sulf (1:4) DES, through the removal of a mixture of model compounds from n-heptane and also from a simulated gasoline and a simulated diesel. In the case of concurrent EDS and EDN from n-heptane, the capacity to extract the sulfur compounds only decreases slightly, but in the case of the nitrogen compounds, their removal is favored by the presence of the other compounds in the model mixture. Regarding the studied complex matrices, simulated gasoline and simulated diesel, the presence of diverse and more complex hydrocarbons has no practical effect on the extraction efficiencies of the nitrogen compounds, while a negative effect was registered for sulfur compounds in diesel. In addition, the reusability of the DES was carried over 5 cycles, where it lost 78% and 44% of its capacity to extract Th and DBT, respectively, but only 4% and 2% for Py and Carb, respectively. Moreover, after a regeneration step, the performance of the DES was fully recovered.
keywords
ORGANIC SULFUR-COMPOUNDS; NITROGEN-COMPOUNDS; DIESEL FUEL; EXTRACTIVE DESULFURIZATION; REMOVAL; HYDRODESULFURIZATION; THIOPHENE; OIL; EQUILIBRIA; SEPARATION
subject category
Chemistry; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Engineering
authors
Lima, F; Dave, M; Silvestre, AJD; Branco, LC; Marrucho, IM
our authors
Armando Jorge Domingues Silvestre
Full professor
Filipa Lima
PhD Student
Isabel Maria Delgado Jana Marrucho Ferreira
Full professoracknowledgements
F.L., I.M.M., and L.C.B. gratefully acknowledge the financial support of FCT/MCTES (Portugal) for the Ph.D. fellowship PD/BDE/114355/2016 and for the contract under Programa Investigador FCT 2012 and 2013 (IF/363/2012 and IF/0041/2013), respectively. This work was financed by CQE project (UID/QUI/00100/2013), the Associate Laboratory CICECO, Aveiro Institute of materials (UID/CTM/50011/2013) and Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry, LAQV-RE-QUIMTE (UID/QUI/50006/2013), and Solchemar company.