Ultra-deep desulfurization of mercaptan by cyclic selective adsorption-reactive regeneration at room temperature

作者：Yang, Cuiting; Miao, Guang; Sarbacker, Eric; He, Haoran; Dong, Lei; Wu, Bowen; Li, Guoqing; Janik, Michael J.^*; Xiao, Jing^*

来源：AICHE Journal, 2022, 68(5): e17590.

DOI：10.1002/aic.17590

• desulfurization
• gasoline
• heavy mercaptan
• reactive regeneration
• selective adsorption

A cyclic process of selective adsorption-reactive regeneration over bifunctional Z-sorb was proposed for desulfurization of heavy mercaptan from gasoline under ambient conditions. A pronounced adsorption capacity (25.7 mg-S/g-adsorbent) and selectivity (206.1, similar to 10 times over 1-hexene) of heptanethiol over bifunctional Z-sorb were achieved, which can be attributed to the strong adsorbate-adsorbent interaction calculated as high as -44.6 kJ/mol. Catalytic reactive regeneration was proposed to remove stubbornly adsorbed heptanethiol, which achieved complete recovery of Z-sorb in multiple cycles under room temperature. With the aid of minor H2O2, the strongly adsorbed heptanethiol in the form of metal-thiolate (Zn-SR) transformed to readily desorbed disulfide, which was elucidated via the combined experiment and density functional theory calculations. The developed process provides insights to resolve the trade-off between adsorption selectivity and regenerability, paving the way for energy-efficient industrial adsorptive de-mercaptan of gasoline.