Removal of Organic Sulfur in Hydrocarbon Liquid Model Fuel by Ni-Loaded Carbon Prepared from Lignite

The removal of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in a hydrocarbon liquid model fuel (MF) by Ni-loaded carbon (Ni/C) prepared from lignite has been studied with a flow-type fixed-bed reactor. The performance of Ni/C in the removal of 500 ppmw S in MF depends on the amount of Ni loaded. The highest ability is observed at 11 wt % dry Ni under the conditions of a reduction time of 0.5 h and a desulfurization temperature of 200 °C. In addition, the reduction time influences the breakthrough curves, and it is found that the optimum condition for DBT removal from MF by Ni/C is 1.0 h. When the desulfurization temperature for evaluating the DBT removal ability of Ni/C is increased, the breakthrough and saturation points also increase, and the greatest performance is observed at 200 °C. From the identification of MF treated by Ni/C, it was found that a part of DBT in the MF feed is removed by chemical adsorption via cleavage of the C–S bond in the DBT molecule to form biphenyl which can adsorb onto a carbonaceous material surface.