Effect of the BMIM BF4 immobilization on oxidized activated carbon in fuel desulfurization

School of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Universidad Industrial de Santander, Street 9, 27 Main Campus, Bucaramanga, 680002, Colombia

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2018, 9 (7), pp 488-493

DOI: 10.5185/amlett. 2018.2065

Publication Date (Web): Jun 14, 2018

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

E-mail: marisol.fernandez@correo.uis.edu.co

Abstract

Environmental consequences of high consumption of fossil fuels containing sulfur compounds have promoted research in technologies for their removal. Catalytic hydrodesulphurization currently used requires high temperature and pressure. Alternative technologies based on ionic liquids pure and anchored to matrices have shown good desulfurization properties. Composites offer advantages of reuse, less time consuming and costs, using lower IL amount. In this work, we obtained a solid composite containing [BMIM][BF₄] supported on oxidized active carbon and characterized by FTIR, BET, TGA-DSC, and SEM. We evaluated the extraction capacity of benzothiophene, thiophene, dibenzothiophene, and diphenyl sulphide from a model fuel with both pure [BMIM][BF₄] as well as the same IL on oxidized activated carbon. In the extraction process using pure IL were achieved removal percentages of up to 69.8% whereas with the composite it was possible to reduce 80 % of the sulfur content. 

Keywords

Ionic liquids, activated carbon, sulfur removal.