Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Sep 8:6:33021.
doi: 10.1038/srep33021.

A Non-catalytic Deep Desulphurization Process using Hydrodynamic Cavitation

Nalinee B Suryawanshi  1   2 , Vinay M Bhandari  1   2 , Laxmi Gayatri Sorokhaibam  3 , Vivek V Ranade  2
Affiliations

A Non-catalytic Deep Desulphurization Process using Hydrodynamic Cavitation

Nalinee B Suryawanshi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

A novel approach is developed for desulphurization of fuels or organics without use of catalyst. In this process, organic and aqueous phases are mixed in a predefined manner under ambient conditions and passed through a cavitating device. Vapor cavities formed in the cavitating device are then collapsed which generate (in-situ) oxidizing species which react with the sulphur moiety resulting in the removal of sulphur from the organic phase. In this work, vortex diode was used as a cavitating device. Three organic solvents (n-octane, toluene and n-octanol) containing known amount of a model sulphur compound (thiophene) up to initial concentrations of 500 ppm were used to verify the proposed method. A very high removal of sulphur content to the extent of 100% was demonstrated. The nature of organic phase and the ratio of aqueous to organic phase were found to be the most important process parameters. The results were also verified and substantiated using commercial diesel as a solvent. The developed process has great potential for deep of various organics, in general, and for transportation fuels, in particular.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare competing financial interests. Intellectual property pertaining to the materials presented in this Report is protected by two patents (WO 2013054362 A2 20130418; 2015-INV-0092: 0230NF2015).

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Schematic of Vortex Diode and Cavitation Process.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Block diagram of the process and Schematic of experimental set-up.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Inception of Cavitation; (a) Effect of solvent; (b) Calculations to demonstrate cavitation occurring at a ΔP of 0.5 bar; (c) Prediction of inception of cavitation based on deviation from square law.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effect of different parameters on desulphurization by Hydrodynamic cavitation; (a) Pressure drop; (b) Initial concentration; (c) Volume fraction.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Cavitation is essential for reduction of sulphur content; (a) Sulphur removal using cavitation(Initial S: 300 ppm); (b) FTIR spectra of aqueous phase after cavitation.
Figure 6
Figure 6. Proposed cavitative oxidation mechanism for desulphurization.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Comparison of deep desulphurization results using commercial diesel; (a) commercial diesel; (b) comparison with other organics.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bhandari V. M. et al.. Desulphurization of diesel using ion-exchanged zeolites. Chemical Engineering Science 61, 2599–2608 (2006).
    1. Song C. An overview of new approaches to deep desulphurization for ultra-clean gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. Catalysis Today 86, 211–263 (2003).
    1. Yang R. T., Hernández-Maldonado A. J. & Yang F. H. Desulphurization of transportation fuels with zeolites under ambient conditions. Science (New York, NY) 301, 79–81 (2003). - PubMed
    1. Song C. & Ma X. New design approaches to ultra-clean diesel fuels by deep desulphurization and deep dearomatization. Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 41, 207–238 (2003).
    1. Chandra Srivastava V. An evaluation of desulphurization technologies for sulphur removal from liquid fuels. RSC Adv. 2, 759–783 (2012).

Publication types