Oxidative-Extractive Desulfurization of Model Fuels Using a Pyridinium Ionic Liquid

Hanan Mohumed; Shofiur Rahman; Syed Ahmad Imtiaz; Yan Zhang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.0c00096

Oxidative-Extractive Desulfurization of Model Fuels Using a Pyridinium Ionic Liquid

ACS Omega. 2020 Apr 2;5(14):8023-8031. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.0c00096. eCollection 2020 Apr 14.

Authors

Hanan Mohumed¹, Shofiur Rahman², Syed Ahmad Imtiaz¹, Yan Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, NL A1B 3X5, Canada.
² Aramco Laboratory for Applied Sensing Research, King Abdullah Institute for Nanotechnology, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

In this research, N-butyl-pyridinium tetrafluoroborate ([BPy][BF₄]) ionic liquid (IL) was synthesized and characterized by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and FT-IR spectroscopy. The synthesized ionic liquid was employed as an extractive agent for the removal of dibenzothiophene (DBT), a typical organosulfur pollutant from the organic medium. The effect of extractive desulfurization on a model fuel with DBT was investigated. The impact of operating parameters, i.e., temperature, extraction time, IL-to-fuel ratio, and fuel to oxidizing agent ratio, on the extraction efficiency was investigated. It was observed that the IL to model fuel ratio and the H₂O₂ dosage have significant effects on desulfurization efficiency. An 89.49% DBT removal efficiency was obtained at a temperature of 30 °C after 35 min of extraction when the volume ratio of IL:model fuel:H₂O₂ was 1:1:0.04. A density functional theory (DFT) study was carried out to investigate the interactions between the IL and the sulfur-containing compounds DBT/DBTO₂.