Photocatalytic of Thiophene Desulfurization

Abstract

Thiophene, found in the fuels is a heterocyclic five membered ring consist of sulfur as the heteroatom, with two pairs of electrons at the S atom along with a pair in the six-electron π-system and the others in the ring. Thiophene give negative impacts to living things and also atmosphere. The presence of sulfur in fuels will lead to the emission of sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere and lead to atmospheric pollution such as acid rain. Thiophene is difficult to remove by using conventional desulfurization process such as hydrosulfurization (HDS). Thus, photocatalytic process is the best alternative method available to degrade the thiophene. Photocatalytic process only requires minimal quantity of catalyst and the by product is almost zero or less harmful to environment and living things. The process efficiency depends strongly on the chosen photocatalyst. ZnO/KCC provide great potential as the photocatalyst. Hence, this review paper focus on the photocatalytic thiophene desulfurization using ZnO/KCC as the photocatalyst.