Adsorptive desulphurization of fuels by hypercrosslinked nanoporous polymers derived from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

A sustainable method is employed to remove polycyclic aromatic sulphur heterocycles (PASHs) from fuels by using a series of high surface area nanoporous adsorbents synthesized from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The hypercrosslinking of PAHs has been used to synthesize high surface area (SABET of 620–1565 m2 g−1) nanoporous polymeric materials via a microwave assisted method. The adsorbent poly-naph (highest SABET, i.e., 1565 m2 g−1) display best performance for desulphurization of fuels from batch to fixed bed column mode. In batch mode, the adsorption capacity of 12.1 (up to 9 ppm sulphur) and 8.9 mgS g−1 (up to 43 ppm sulphur), has been estimated for model (100 ppm sulphur) and real fuels (110 ppm sulphur), respectively. Furthermore, from ultra-low sulphur model (10 ppm sulphur) and real fuel (9 ppm sulphur), the adsorption capacity of 16.1 (up to 0.3 ppm sulphur) and 10 mgS g−1 (up to 3 ppm sulphur) has been estimated. In fixed-bed column mode, the high concentrated model and real fuel have been desulphurized to final concentration of 1 and 12 ppm, respectively. While, at low concentrations, the final concentration of 100 ppb and 1 ppm is achieved for model and real fuels, respectively. The adsorption mechanism revealed that π-electron density in the polymeric framework plays prominent role in the adsorption process apart from high surface area. This approach to control carcinogenic aromatic pollutants like PAHs and PASHs can be sustained over time through technological advancement, financial assistance and governmental regulation.