ODS of dibenzothiophene over V-SBA-15 mesoporous material.

Abstract

Oxidative desulfurization (ODS) is considered a new alternative method for deep sulfur elimination from light oils. This can be due to its attractive properties, including lower temperature and pressure conditions and lower operating cost than conventional hydrodesulfurization process. Oxidation of organosulfur compounds results in the formation of sulfoxides/sulfones, highly polar and hence easily removed by both extraction into polar solvents or by adsorption. The oxidation of DBTs with organic hydroperoxides or H2O2 was studied over various catalytic heterogeneous systems, such as supported oxide metals or titanium silicalites1-9. Vanadosilicates were used as catalysts for the desulfurization of light oil10-12. The oxidation of (DBTs) was also performed using WOx/ZrO2 catalyst13, supported Pd, Cr2O3, unsupported manganese oxides and a commercial Co Mo/Al2O3 with hydrogen peroxide as oxidant14. In general, when tetravalent cations like Ti4+, Zr4+, V4+, Sn4+, etc. are incorporated to the framework of SBA 15, the electroneutrality is maintained but some redox properties are incorporated to the support surface15,16 . In this work we evaluate vanadium modified mesoporous SBA-15 in the ODS of dibenzothiophene as a model sulfur compound