The Use of Glycols as Solvents for Desulfurization of Fuels

One of the biggest challenges encountering the petroleum industry is desulfurization. Thepresence of the sulfur compounds in fuels leads to release of SOx by combustion [1]. So,desulfurization of fuels is very important environmentally and holds considerable interestrecently. Liquid-liquid extraction is used in many industries not only as a simple separationtechnique but also economically [2]. The selection of an adequate solvent is the first step inLiquid-liquid extraction. Efficient desulfurization can be obtained by glycols. Phase equilibriumdata are very important in recovery and separation processes. In this study LLE data of alkane +thiophene + glycol were investigated by cloud point method. The distribution coefficients andseparation factors were obtained from tie-line data. The reliability of the experimental data wasdefined by Othmer-Tobias and Hand equations [3]. The correlation of the data was performed byNRTL and UNIQUAC models [4-5]. The results were satisfactory.

Keywords:

Desulfurization , Liquid-Liquid Extraction , Glycol