ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Effectiveness of ionic liquids in extractive–oxidative desulfurization of liquid fuels: a review

Komal Desai, Swapnil Dharaskar, Mohammad Khalid, and Vidyadhar Gedam

Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Energy University, Raisan, Gandhinagar, India

E-mail: swapnil.dharaskar@sot.pdpu.ac.in

Received: 5 June 2021  Accepted: 23 December 2021

Abstract:

Nowadays, the production of environmentally friendly, sulfur-free fuel as a feedstock is a global requirement due to the increasing demand for ultraclean fuels. Hydrodesulfurization is the typical technique widely used in the industry that deals with severe difficulties. So, to overcome these difficulties, researchers have invented various desulfurization techniques, such as extractive, adsorptive, oxidative, or a combination of these techniques. The use of ionic liquids (ILs) in extractive desulfurization, oxidative desulfurization, and extractive–oxidative desulfurization techniques has gotten a lot of attention in the last few decades, and there have been a lot of papers written about it. In these techniques, ILs are employed as extractants and catalysts instead of traditional volatile organic solvents. This study aims to highlight the influential factors such as operating conditions, mass ratio of ionic liquid to fuel, quantity of other complementing reagents, initial sulfur content, and effects of various sulfur compounds with the key emphasis on the efficacy of ILs in both the techniques. To understand the effectiveness and multifunctional role of ILs, the influence of structure and properties of ILs, multistage extraction using ILs, regeneration and recycling of ILs are also reported in this paper. Here, a review of the interesting findings, challenges, and future perspectives to mature the performance of these techniques is discussed in detail.

Keywords: Ionic liquid; Extractive desulfurization; Oxidative desulfurization; Extractive–oxidative desulfurization; Recalcitrant sulfur compounds; Catalysts; Extractants

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-021-02038-3

Chemical Papers 76 (4) 1989–2028 (2022)