Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362

DOI 10.1007/s13203-015-0112-3

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Desulfurization of Saudi Arabian crudes by oxidation–extraction

method
Raja L. AL Otaibi1 • Dong Liu2 • Xulian Hou2 • Linhua Song3 • Qingyin Li3 •

Mengfei Li4 • Hamid O. Almigrin2 • Zifeng Yan2

Received: 8 March 2015 / Accepted: 19 May 2015 / Published online: 6 June 2015
Ó The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com

Abstract The oxidation–extraction desulfurization of Introduction

Saudi Arabian crudes was conducted with hydrogen per-
oxide–acetic acid oxidation system. The selection of With rapid development of economy and technology and
extractant, the optimization of oxidation–extraction con- increasing demand for crude oil exploitation, the content
ditions, and the exploration of desulfurization mechanism of sulfur-contenting compounds in the crude oil is ever
were studied. As DMF was used as the extractant, the increasing, leading to poor oil quality. The dissolved sul-
optimal desulfurization rate of 35.11 % and oil recovery of fides, such as hydrogen sulfide, sulfoether, mercaptan,
95 % were obtained at 70 °C with the molar ratio of per- disulfide, and thiophene, may corrode the equipment in the
acetic acid to sulfur of 8:1, the molar ratio of acetic acid to exploitation, transportation and refining process [1, 2],
hydrogen peroxide of 2:1 and the volume ratio of extractant directly affecting the safe production and even polluting
to oil of 1:1. The desulfurization effect of different frac- the environment. Therefore, the technology of crude oil
tions in the treated Saudi Arabian crudes was found to obey desulfurization has attracted more and more interests, and
the following order: gasoline–diesel fraction [VGO frac- the extensive researches mainly on the non-hydrogenation
tion [VR fraction, due to different types and structures of desulfurization (NHDS) are received [3–5]. The ultrasonic
sulfur compounds. The oil quality was less affected and oxidation and bacteria desulfurization methods that
most sulfides were mainly extracted via DMF. remove some sulfides of the heavy crude oil are developed
by Sulphco U.S Company [6] and Iran Sharif University
Keywords Saudi Arabian crudes  Oxidation–extraction  of Technology [7], respectively. Additionally, the desul-
Desulfurization  Fractions furizer GX *201D in Changqing desulfurization process
could be added into crude oil directly, but it was non-
renewable.
At present, the industrial desulfurization processing
& Dong Liu technologies of crude oil are still immature. Especially, the
[email protected] desulfurization effect on organic sulfur compounds is
& Xulian Hou insignificant. In view of advantages of mild reaction con-
[email protected] ditions, high selectivity and low cost [8–10], the deep
1
Petrochemical Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City for
oxidation desulfurization process has received more con-
Science and Technology, PO Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, cern recently which can remove the refractory sulfur
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia compounds significantly. The oxidants commonly used
2
State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China include NO2/HNO3, O3, peroxyacid and tertbutyl
University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580, China hypochlorite [11–13]. H2O2 (as oxidant) with organic acid
3
College of Science, China University of Petroleum, (as oxidation accelerator) among them is widely used in
Qingdao 266580, China light oil desulfurization process but hardly in crude oil
4
College of Chemical Engineering, Qingdao University of [14]. Moreover, there are few researches systematically on
Science and Technology, Qingdao 266000, China the oxidation desulfurization mechanism.

123
356 Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362

In this paper, the 30 wt% H2O2–acetic acid oxidation fraction, respectively. The gasoline–diesel fraction was
system was utilized to remove the sulfides from the Saudi characterized by GC-PFPD (USA, GC3800). Besides,
Arabian crudes. The optimization of oxidation and VGO fraction was analyzed by GC–MS (Agilent Tech-
extraction conditions was studied, including peracetic acid nologies Co., Ltd., GC6890) and VR fraction was separated
dosage, HAc/H2O2 ratio, temperature, reaction time, into saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes to study
selection of extractant. The desulfurization effect of dif- the reaction mechanism. As to the GC-PFPD analysis, a
ferent fractions in crude oil was also investigated. Addi- HP-5HS (30 m 9 0.32 m 9 0.25 lm) column was ini-
tionally, the oxidation extraction mechanism was proposed. tially maintained at 80 °C for 2 min, then the temperature
was ramped to 280 °C at 3 °C/min and maintained for
10 min. The temperature of sample injector was set to
Experimental 320 °C. The carrier gas was high-purity nitrogen, and the
flow rate was 1.0 mL/min. Injection volume was 1 lL.
Materials In addition, crude oil before/after desulfurization and oil
in the extractant were analyzed by infrared spectrometer
A sample of treated crude oil (Sulfur content, 2.5 wt%) was (IR 1730) to investigate the effect of the oxidation–ex-
obtained from Saudi Arabia; Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, 30 traction system on the oil quality and distribution of the
wt%), acetic acid (HAc), N, N-dimethylformamide(DMF), sulfur compounds.
dimethylsulfoxide(DMSO), ethanol, ethylene glycol and
furfural were purchased commercially.
Results and discussion
Oxidation and extraction of crude oil
Optimization of oxidation conditions
The oxidation of Saudi Arabian crudes was conducted in a
glass flask with an electric stirrer. An excess amount of 30 The different oxidation conditions were conducted to study
wt% H2O2 and acetic acid was used to oxidize the sulfur the oxidative desulfurization effect. In this section, the
compounds thoroughly. First, H2O2 and HAC were mixed extraction experiment was carried out at 60 °C for 20 min
at a certain ratio to prepare the peracetic acid, which was with DMF as extractant, and the extractant to oil volume
then put into the crude material. Subsequently, the mixture ratio (E/O) was one. The results are shown in Fig. 1.
was stirred at the desired temperature for a certain time. H2O2/organic acid oxidation desulfurization method has
The extraction of Saudi Arabian crudes was conducted been widely investigated and it is a very mature method
in a three-neck glass flask with an electric stirrer. The which can satisfy the purpose of green chemistry in light
extractant was added to the oxidation reaction system. The oil desulfurization process. Otsuki et al. [15] have reported
extraction reaction was carried out at 60 °C for 20 min. that the sulfur content of oxidized vacuum gas oil was
Thereafter, the treated crude oil was obtained by cen- reduced to 0.01 wt% and most of benzothiophene com-
trifuging after the mixture was cooled to room temperature. pounds were removed by H2O2/formic acid oxidation–ex-
Finally, oil and solvent were separated using a separatory traction system.
funnel. Figure 1a shows the effect of different organic acids (as
oxidation accelerator). The acetic acid was found to have
Analysis better oxidation-desulfurization effect than formic acid.
H2O2/formic acid system was unable to desulfur effectively
The sulfur content (wt%) of the crude oil was measured by due to inherent strong acidity of formic acid. The selec-
tubular furnace (Shandong Xianke Instruments Co., Ltd. tivity in this reaction is much lower under these severe
SX2-5-1). The desulfurization rate can be calculated by the conditions, resulting in sulfides being oxidized incom-
following equations: pletely. Additionally, some polar compounds such as the
unsaturated hydrocarbons in the crude oil can be also
x1  x2
g ¼  100 % oxidized and extracted simultaneously. To be concluded,
x1 on the one hand, the oxidation selectivity for the sulfur-
where containing compounds and utilization efficiency for H2O2/
g: desulfurization rate, %; organic acid system would be reduced by the strong acidic
x1: sulfur compounds content of crude oil, %; reaction condition. Thus, a large quantity of oxidant is
x2: sulfur compounds content of treated crude oil, %. required and the operation cost is increased. On the other
The treated crude oil was distillated to obtain gasoline– hand, the quality of the crude oil would be changed badly.
diesel fraction, VGO fraction (350–450 °C) and VR Clearly, the acidity of acetic acid is weaker than that of

123
Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362 357

18 40

Acetic acid
15
Desulfurization rate/% Formic acid 32

Desulfurization rate /%
12
24
9

16
6

8
3

(a) (b)
0 0
1 2 4 8 12 16

Organic acid Peracetic acid dosage

40 40

32 32
Desulfurization rate/%

Desulfurization rate/%
24 24

16 16

8 8

(c) (d)
0 0
1 2 3 4 40 50 60 70 80

HAc/H2O2 Oxidation temperature/°C

40

32
Desulfurization rate/%

24

16

(e)
0
15 30 45 60 75
Oxidation time/min

Fig. 1 Effect of oxidation conditions on the desulfurization rate. (Peracetic acid dosage is the molar ratio of peracetic acid to sulfur in the oil)

formic acid, and then proper oxidation desulfurization of increase of peracetic acid dosage, and then it levels off at
crude oil could be acquired through H2O2/acetic acid oxi- 16 %, suggesting that the optimized molar ratio of per-
dation system. Especially, the resulted oily quality was less acetic acid to sulfur is 8:1.
affected during the process. The influence of peracetic acid Effect of HAc/H2O2 ratio on sulfur removal is depicted
dosage ranging from 0 to 16 was investigated, as the acetic in Fig. 1c. Molar ratio of peracetic acid to sulfur is 8:1,
acid/hydroperoxide molar ratio, oxidation temperature and oxidation temperature is 60 °C and oxidation time is
oxidation time were 1.5, 60 °C and 60 min. As shown in 60 min. Desulfurization rate presents an uptrend when
Fig. 1b, the desulfurization rate increases initially with the HAc/H2O2 ratio is smaller than two and it decreases

123
358 Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362

slightly with HAc/H2O2 ratio further increased. It was 40

explained that HAc could catalyze reaction as an oxidation

36
accelerator; however, excessive acidity may impair the

Desulfurization rate/%
stability of DMF and weaken extraction effect, leading to 32
reducing the desulfurization rate slightly. Therefore, HAc/
H2O2 ratio of two is chosen. 28
As illustrated in Fig. 1d, the reaction proceeds com-
pletely with the oxidation temperature increased. In par- 24

ticular, the desulfurization rate decreases obviously due to

20
decomposition of H2O2 and peracetic acid with tempera-
ture exceeded 70 °C. Additionally, the unsaturated hydro- 16
carbons and the nitrogen/oxygen-containing compounds
are also oxidized, which could destroy the quality of oil 0.6 0.9 1.2 1.5

and weaken the oxidation selectivity. Therefore, the opti- E/O

mal oxidation temperature is 70 °C.
Fig. 2 Effect of the extractant to oil volume ratio on the desulfur-
Figure 1e illustrates that the desulfurization rate ele- ization rate
vated obviously with the increasing oxidation time. The
oxidation reaction may be completed in 60 min, which was higher than 1.5, which would reduce the yield of crude oil
the optimized reaction time. accordingly. Hence, the chosen E/O ratio was 1, in which
In conclusion, the optimal oxidation conditions are as the obtained desulfurization rate was up to 35.11 and 95 %
follows: H2O2/acetic acid system is chosen, the molar ratio of oil could be recovered.
of peracetic acid to sulfur is 8:1; HAc/H2O2 molar ratio is
2; the oxidation temperature is 70 °C; the oxidation time is Mechanism study of the desulfurization effect
60 min.
The yield and desulfurization effect of different fractions
Optimization of extraction conditions
The qualitative analysis on the various sulfides was limited
Thiophenes can be oxidized to sulfones by peracetic acid due to the complex composition in the crude oil. Hence, the
[16]. In view of atomic structure, sulfur atoms have five Saudi Arabian crudes treated from the optimal desulfur-
more 3d orbits than that of carbon atoms, so they are able ization conditions were distilled into three fractions, to
to be oxidized easily. Compared with organic sulfur-con- further investigate the desulfurization effect on different
taining compounds, the generated organic oxides have fractions.
higher dipole moments, resulting in the increased solubility Table 2 shows that different fractions yield remain
in DMF, ethanol, DMSO and some other polar solvents. almost unchanged after oxidative desulfurization, indicat-
The extraction experiment was carried out under the opti- ing the occurrence of some side reactions during the
mal oxidation condition. desulfurization process. In other words, the experimental
As seen in Table 1, the desulfurization rate of DMF is system has a little influence on the crude oil composition,
much higher than that of other solvents at extraction tem- which makes the process promising for future applications.
perature and time of 60 °C and 20 min. Moreover, it could The desulfurization rate obeys the following order:
be recovered from atmospheric distillation, thus DMF is gasoline–diesel [ VGO [ VR. On the one hand, the heavy
selected as suitable extractant. fraction contains more complicated sulfur compounds with
Figure 2 shows the influence of the DMF to oil volume stable structure, suggesting that desulfurization process
ratio (E/O) on the extraction process. The extracted oxide was in trouble. On the other hand, the components with
reached to the maximum extent with E/O of 1–1.5. Some more strong polarity existed in the heavy fraction could be
polar components could also be extracted as E/O ratio was extracted readily via DMF, which would weaken the sulfur
removal effect.
Table 1 Effect of extractant on the desulfurization rate
Extractant DMF DMSO Ethanol Ethylene Furfural GC analysis of gasoline–diesel fraction
glycol
Mercaptan belongs to weak acid, and thus can be oxidized
Desulfurization 35.11 20.31 6.92 11.19 –
rate/%
easily to disulfide. The alkyl sulfide is a neutral liquid
substance, and the disulfide has a poor stability. Both are

123
Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362 359

Table 2 The fractions yield and desulfurization rate The formula for oxidation desulfurization mechanism is
Fractions Gasoline– VGO(350–450 °C) VR
as follows:
diesel H2O2+CH3 COOH H2O+CH3COOOH (quickly)
O O O
Yield before 33.47 19.44 47.09
desulfurization/% CH3COOOH + S S + S + CH3COOH (slowly)
Yield after 32.28 20.17 47.55
desulfurization/% As the organic sulfur compounds are oxidized to the
Desulfurization rate/% 59.25 37.58 13.25 corresponding sulfoxide and/or sulfone by peracetic acid,
the efficiency of desulfurization can be significantly
increased using DMF extraction. Previous researches [15]
Table 3 Changes of sulfur content in gasoline–diesel fraction suggest that the density of electron cloud and space steric
hindrance play a critical role in the oxidative desulfuriza-
Types of Sulfur content/lg g-1 Desulfurization
sulfide rate/% tion. The oxidation reaction rate constant k increases with
Before After the electron cloud density of sulfur atoms. Hence, the
desulfurization desulfurization
reactivity of sulfur compounds is enhanced with the elec-
Mercaptan 196.86 20.24 89.72 tron density increased for sulfur atom. The effect of
sulfur oxidative desulfurization should be as follows: dibenzoth-
Alkyl sulfide 66.68 9.20 86.20 iophene [ benzothiophene [ thiophene. However, the
Disulfide 737.32 6.04 99.18 experimental results are contrary to the above conclusions.
Alkyl 1754.88 67.00 96.18 It is speculated that the space steric hindrance may be the
thiophene dominant factor in the reaction. It should be noted that
BT 2351.62 1341.58 42.95 59.25 % sulfurs have been removed thoroughly by DMF
DBT 2659.64 1718.72 35.38 extraction, indicating that oxidative products in the gaso-
Others 148.16 62.54 57.79 line–diesel fraction could be extracted effectively to
Total 7915.16 3225.32 59.25 achieve the deep desulfurization goal.

prone to be oxidized to sulfoxide or sulfonic acid [17], and GC–MS analysis of the VGO fraction
then removed by extractant. As shown in Table 3,
alkylthiophene (96.18 %), benzothiophene (42.95 %) and The obtained VGO (350–450 °C) fraction was character-
dibenzothiophene (35.38 %) in gasoline–diesel fraction ized by GC–MS. The results are listed in Table 4. Some
have been removed after oxidative–extractive reaction. specific sulfides including thioether, benzothiophene,

Table 4 Sulfur compounds’

structures and desulfurization Desulfurization
rate in the VGO fraction NO. Formulas Structures
rate/%

1 C16H10S 59.17

2 C15H14S 18.97

3 C16H10S S 12.63

4 C17H12S S
10.38

5 C18H14S 9.75
S

S
N

6 C12H14N2S NH
6.53

123
360 Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362

benzonaphthothiophene and benzisothiazole could be

50 Yield before desulfurization
identified. After oxidation, these sulfur compounds were Yield after desulfurization
reacted to sulfones, and then removed partly after extrac- Desulfurization rate
40
tion. Especially the di-n-octylsulfide removal rate is the
highest, followed by trimethyldibenzothiophene removal

Percent/%
rate, while the other sulfide removal rates are relatively 30

low. It is speculated that this is mainly due to the effect of

space steric hindrance and inhibition of N atoms. 20

The sulfur compounds in the VGO fraction existed

mainly in forms of thiophene, benzothiophene, dibenzoth- 10
iophene compounds and derivatives. Due to the weak
polarity in the carbon–carbon bones and carbon–sulfur 0
A B C D
bones, both organic sulfur-containing species and the cor-
responding hydrocarbons had the similar polarity. Hence, Four components

the sulfur compounds in the crude oil were unable to be Fig. 3 Four components analysis of the VR fraction, A saturates,
removed via polar solvents. B aromatics, C resins, D asphaltenes
From the molecular perspective, the d orbital electrons
were presented in the sulfur atom, so the sulfides were
prone to be oxidized selectively to the sulfoxide or sulfone be removed without efforts due to the stable structure and
with stronger polarity by peracetic acid. As the oxygen space steric effect. Desulfurization rate decreases in the
atoms were bonded to the sulfur atoms, dipole moment of following order: saturates [ aromatics [ resin [ as-
the sulfur compounds increased accordingly, and thus their phaltenes. It can be explained that the polarity and con-
dissolving capacity in the polar solvents (DMF, DMSO, densation degree in the four components increased
etc.,) was enhanced significantly. accordingly. The solubility of sulfides and their corre-
The extraction process was conducted through hydrogen sponding oxidation products—sulfones in the oil were
bond interactions between extractant and oxidized com- enhanced with the strong polarities, leading to difficult
pounds, and the selectivity of extractant to the sulfides was removal.
vital in the desulfurization process. The desulfurization
efficiency was affected greatly by the physicochemical IR analysis of crude oil and the oil in the extractant
properties of utilized organic solvent, especially polarity. It
was shown that the solvent with high polarity may extract IR spectrums of the crude oil before and after desulfur-
the oxidized sulfur compounds (sulfones) effectively, and ization are shown in Fig. 4a, b. The results demonstrated
DMF was considered as the most suitable extractant among that the oily quality hardly changed, indicating the exper-
these solvents used. imental method is feasible.
In this study, it was demonstrated that thiophene, ben- Compared with raw material (Fig. 4a), oil in the
zothiophene, dibenzothiophene compounds and derivatives extractant presents two strong absorption peaks at 1300
were oxidized via CH3COOOH and extracted through and 1160 cm-1 (Fig. 4c) (DMF and aqueous phase have
DMF. been removed by distillation), which illustrated that the
sulfides have been oxidized to the corresponding sulfones
Four components analysis of the VR fraction (-SO2-). Furthermore, the characteristic adsorption peaks
of S=O bond (sulfoxide) and -SO3H (sulfonic acid)
Four components analysis of VR is conducted to investi- located at 1030 and 1160 cm-1 were obscure. They are
gate the influence of the oxidation–extraction system on the probably covered by absorption peaks of -SO2-(sulfones)
VR fraction compositions. The results (Fig. 3) indicate that [18]. Besides, 1740 cm-1 is attributed to the presence of
the relative yields of saturates and aromatics declined DMF, mainly caused by the remaining DMF after the
slightly, on the contrary, the yields of resins and distillation; 3400 cm-1 represented the absorption peak of
asphaltenes increased after desulfurization. Thus, it was vibration hydroxyl group, which may belong to residual
preliminarily inferred that some saturates and aromatics moisture or alcohol generated during the oxidation
were condensed into resins and asphaltenes. process.
The major sulfides are thioether and thiophene in resins Finally, the sulfur content of the oil in the extractant is
and asphaltenes, such as alkyl thiophene, dibenzothiophene determined to be 10.8 % approximately. Obviously, sulfide
and five- or six-membered ring thioether. In terms of the enrichment can be achieved by extracting the oxidation
aromatic heterocyclic compound, thiophene was unable to products from the oxidized oil.

123
Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362 361

80 80

70 70
1030 1600
723
60 60 561 1600
721 1030
1120
50 50
1380
40 40
1460
30 30
1460
20 20

10 10
(a) 2920 (b) 2920
0 0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500

80

70

60

50 723883

40 3400
1460 1740
1160
30 1300
2930
20

10
(c)
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500

Fig. 4 IR analysis of crude oil and extracted oil. a Crude oil before desulfurization, b crude oil after desulfurization, c oil in the extractant

Conclusions References

The oil quality changes a little and most of the sulfides are 1. Qingtang Y (2008) Progress and outlook on technologies for
processing inferior crude oil in China. China Petroleum Proc
mainly extracted by DMF after desulfurization. The highest Petrochem Technol 1:1–7
desulfurization rate is obtained at the oxidation temperature 2. Shafi R, Hutchings GJ (2000) Hydrodesulfurization of hindered
of 70 °C for 60 min with a HAc to H2O2 molar ratio of 2:1 dibenzothiophenes: an overview. Catal Today 59:423–442
and a peracetic acid to sulfur molar ratio of 8:1. DMF was 3. Jianhua Q, Yuenan Z, Lin L et al (2009) Study on kinetics for
desulfurization of model diesel. China Petroleum Proc Petrochem
confirmed to be the best extractant. The optimal extraction Technol 2:43–47
condition was considered to be carried out at 60 °C for 4. Yarong X, Shen Benxian X, Xinliang X et al (2010) FCC gaso-
20 min with the extractant to oil volume ratio of 1:1. The line desulfurization through oxidation and extraction. Chem Ind
desulfurization rate of Saudi Arabian crudes could reach as Eng Prog 29(6):1051–1055 (in Chinese)
5. Dehkordi AM, Kiaei Z, Sobati MA (2009) Oxidative desulfur-
high as 35.11 % and the oil recovery is about 95 %. ization of simulated light fuel oil and untreated kerosene. Fuel
The desulfurization effect of different fractions, Process Technol 90(3):435–445
obtained from the treated Saudi Arabian crudes, is found to 6. Agarwal P, Sharma DK (2009) Comparative studies on the bio-
obey the following order: gasoline–diesel fraction [ VGO desulfurization of crude oil with other desulfurization techniques
and deep desulfurization through integrated processes. Energy
fraction [ VR fraction. Fuel 24(1):518–524
7. Bozhang Q (2008) Heavy crude oil desulfurization process by
Acknowledgments This work was supported by the Fundamental bacteria in Iran. Adv Fine Petrochem 10:19
Research Funds for the Central Universities(15CX05009A). 8. Kumar S, Srivastava VC, Badoni RP (2012) Oxidative desulfu-
rization by chromium promoted sulfated zirconia. Fuel Process
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Technol 93(1):18–25
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http:// 9. Lin L, Hong L, MengFanfei L et al (2011) Optimization study on
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted oxidative desulfurization of crude oil under electric field. China
use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give Petroleum Proc Petrochem Technol 13(3):59–63
appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a 10. Jianhua G, Yuming Z, Yong Y et al (2011) Catalytic oxidative
link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were desulfurization of gasoline using ionic liquid emulsion system.
made. Ind Eng Chem Res 50(24):13686–13692

123
362 Appl Petrochem Res (2015) 5:355–362

11. Wenshuai Z, Guopeng Z, Huaming L et al (2011) Oxidative 15. Otsuki S, Nonaka T, Takashima N et al (2000) Oxidative
desulfurization of fuel catalyzed by metal-based surfactant-type desulfurization of light gas oil and vacuum gas oil by oxidation
ionic liquids. J Mol Catal A Chem 347(1):8–14 and solvent extraction. Energy Fuels 14(6):1232–1239
12. Hua S, Guozhong L, Zhengguang L (2010) Deep desulphuriza- 16. Murata S, Murata K, Kidena K et al (2004) A novel oxidative
tion of gasoline by catalytic oxidation using quaternary ammo- desulfurization system for diesel fuels with molecular oxygen in
nium phosphotungstate as catalyst. J Fuel Chem Technol the presence of cobalt catalysts and aldehydes. Energy Fuels
38(4):439–444 18(1):116–121
13. Dehkordi AM, Kiaei Z, Sobati MA (2009) Oxidative desulfur- 17. Shiraishi Y, Hirai T (2004) Desulfurization of vacuum gas oil
ization of simulated light fuel oil and untreated kerosene. Fuel based on chemical oxidation followed by liquid–liquid extraction.
Process Technol 90(3):435–445 Energy Fuels 18(1):37–40
14. Haixia L, Lingmei X, Jie M et al (2011) Comparative Study on 18. Xiangfu Lin (2009) Modern spectrum analysis method. East
oxidative desulfurization of FCC gasoline by Ce4? compound and China University of Science and Technology Press, Shanghai,
H2O2. China Petroleum Proc Petrochem Technol 13(4):23–28 pp 50–51

123