Oxidation of Sulphur pollutants in model and real fuels using hydrodynamic cavitation

Peter Delaney; Varaha P Sarvothaman; Sanjay Nagarajan; David Rooney; Peter K J Robertson; Vivek V Ranade

doi:10.1016/j.ultsonch.2023.106405

Oxidation of Sulphur pollutants in model and real fuels using hydrodynamic cavitation

Ultrason Sonochem. 2023 May:95:106405. doi: 10.1016/j.ultsonch.2023.106405. Epub 2023 Apr 14.

Authors

Peter Delaney¹, Varaha P Sarvothaman², Sanjay Nagarajan³, David Rooney¹, Peter K J Robertson¹, Vivek V Ranade⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5AG, UK.
² School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5AG, UK; Clean Combustion Research Center, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia.
³ Sustainable Environment Research Centre, University of South Wales, Pontypridd CF37 1DL, UK.
⁴ School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT9 5AG, UK; Bernal Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. Electronic address: V.Ranade@qub.ac.uk.

Abstract

Hydrodynamic Cavitation (HC) offers an attractive platform for intensifying oxidative desulphurization of fuels. In the first part of this work, we present new results on oxidising single ring thiophene in a model fuel over the extended range of volume fraction of organic phase from 2.5 to 80 v/v %. We also present influence of type and scale of HC device on performance of oxidative desulphurization. Further experiments revealed that oxidising radicals generated in-situ by HC alone were not able to oxidise dual ring thiophenes. External catalyst (formic acid) and oxidising agents (hydrogen peroxide, H₂O₂) were therefore used with HC. Based on our prior work with acoustic cavitation (AC), the volumetric ratios for H₂O₂ and formic acid were identified as 0.95 v/v % and 6.25 v/v % respectively. The data of oxidation of dual ring thiophenes with n-dodecane and n-hexane as model fuels and typical transport fuels (diesel, kerosene, and petrol) using these oxidant and catalyst is presented. The observed performance with HC was compared with results obtained from a stirred tank and AC set-up. The presented data indicates that HC is able to intensify oxidation of sulphur species. The presented results provide a sound basis for further developments on HC based oxidative desulphurization processes.

Keywords: Catalysts; Fuels; Hydrodynamic cavitation; Oxidants; Oxidative desulphurization.