Diesel Fuel Desulfurization via Adsorption with the Aid of Activated Carbon: Laboratory- and Pilot-Scale Studies

Abstract

The present work is an experimental investigation of commercial diesel fuel liquid desulfurization via adsorption under mild conditions. The sorbent employed was a commercial high surface area activated carbon (AC), and studies involved both laboratory- and pilot-scale experiments performed in dedicated fixed-bed setups. Under laboratory-scale conditions, maximum sulfur removal measured exceeded 90%, while according to breakthrough curves the total sulfur content remained below 2 ppmw for up to 20–22 mL of processed diesel per gram of sorbent. Process scaling-up by a factor of 15 showed a moderate negative effect, with the respective breakthrough fuel amount (total sulfur ≤2 ppmw) being ∼15–17 mL processed fuel/g sorbent. Several sorbent regeneration strategies were studied under laboratory-scale conditions. The one with the highest restoration of initial (i.e., fresh state) AC performance involved heating under vacuum (200 mbara) up to 200 °C and subsequent washing of the material with a binary organic s...