Development of a Catalytically Active Solvent for Desulfurization of Transportation Fuel

72102S03-I In order to comply with current EPA regulations for reducing the level of sulfur in gasoline and diesel fuel, domestic refineries will need to install new process units for desulfurization of the fuel streams. However, current commercially available desulfurization technologies have significant energy requirements due to the severe operating conditions (such as high temperatures and pressures) and their use of hydrogen (which requires additional energy to produce). As a further drawback, most gasoline desulfurization processes degrade the quality of the gasoline, resulting in additional energy consumption. This project will develop a catalytically active solvent process that will extract sulfur compounds from refinery fuel streams. In Phase I, well-known catalytically active compounds will be formulated and added to solvents selected from a novel group of compounds. Then, the catalytically active solvent will be evaluated for its ability to extract the sulfur compounds from representative gasoline and diesel fuel blending streams. Finally, methods for regenerating the sulfur-containing solvent will be evaluated. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by awardee: The catalytic extraction of sulfur compounds from refinery fuel streams under mild conditions, without the use of hydrogen and without degrading the quality of the product, should save energy and other operating costs. A processing unit based on this technology would use simple, well-known operating techniques and would be expected to require less capital than current technologies.