Solvent desulfurization regeneration process and analysis of activated carbon for low-sulfur real diesel

The adsorption desulfurization process of diesel fuel is suffering from adsorbent regeneration limitation. Adsorption performance of activated carbon (AC) for S-compounds and hydrocarbons in low-sulfur real diesel was investigated by an adsorption fixed bed. The exhausted AC was regenerated by different solvents, including n-octane, ethanol and cyclohexane. AC samples were characterized using N-2 adsorption-desorption isotherm at 77 K, TG and FT-IR. S-species and hydrocarbons-species in real diesel and the regeneration solutions were analyzed by gas chromatography-sulfur chemiluminescence detection (GC-SCD), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography (GC). The effects of hydrocarbons on desorption performance of S-compounds and extraction capability of n-octane were investigated. The effect of n-octane as a recycled regeneration solvent on the regeneration stability of AC in this work was also considered. The S-content in diesel was reduced to less than 10 ppm from an initial S-content of 34.83 ppm. The competitive adsorption between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and S-compounds was the largest in hydrocarbons. The regeneration performance of different solvents for AC decreased as follows: n-octane > ethanol > cyclohexane. The regeneration efficiency of AC was 100% after a first adsorption-desorption cycle, and was held near 73% after 50 cycles using fresh n-octane as a regenerating solvent. The regeneration efficiency of AC can be maintained at 45% after 20 cycles using n-octane as a recycled regeneration solvent. According to the results of characterizations and tests, we found that multilayer adsorption of S-compounds and PAHs occurred in the mesopores of AC, while the aggregation phenomenon of small alkane molecules mainly existed in the micropores.