desulfurization and denitrogenation of fossil fuels: a report on our current activities and future plans

Fossil fuels consumption leads to sulfur and nitrogen oxide gases emission, which harms the environment. strict fines are imposed if this emission is not controlled and reduced. hydrodesulfurization (hds) and hydrodenitrogenation (hdn) are adopted to remove sulfur and nitrogen compounds in petroleum refining systems. the ni-mo/al2o3 and co-mo/al2o3 catalysts are applied as catalysts in these process. the hds and hdn have little effect on the aromatic sulfur and nitrogen compounds removal. removing these compounds through hds and hdn needs strict conditions (high temperature and pressure) [1]. hence, the development of efficient methods for the removal of aromatic sulfur compounds has attracted the attention of researchers. for this purpose, liquid-liquid extraction desulfurization (lleds) [2], adsorption desulfurization (ads) [3], biodesulfurization (bds) [4], oxidative desulfurization (ods) [5], and electrochemical desulfurization (ecds) [6] methods are applied as the complementary methods in hds process.in this seminar, a report of our activities related to the application of liquid-liquid extraction methods, the use of synthetic adsorbents, magnetic adsorbents, carbon adsorbents prepared from agricultural wastes, the integration of liquid-liquid absorption and extraction methods, the integration of electrochemical oxidation methods and liquid-liquid extraction and assessment of three-dimensional electrochemistry and photoelectrochemistry in the removal of aromatic sulfur and nitrogen compounds in fossil fuels are presented.