<p>Clean fuel production has recently emerged as one of the petroleum refining industry’s top priorities. Therefore, the removal of sulfur compounds from real diesel fuel using various techniques has received considerable attention in recent years. This manuscript examines the oxidation reaction of sulfur removal from real diesel fuel using the new oxidant peracetic acid CH₃CO₃H. For this reason, a new nanocatalyst (5% Fe₂O₃/γ-Al₂O₃) was designed by loading metal oxide nanoparticles over nano-gamma alumina via impregnation (IWI) technology. Also, the new pilot plant oscillatory helical baffled reactor (OHBR) was designed and utilized for the catalytic oxidation process to evaluate the prepared nanocatalyst’s activity. The good efficiency of sulfur conversion was obtained to be 73.23% under moderate conditions: reaction temperature of 80°C, frequency of oscillation of 2 Hz, and amplitude of oscillation of 8 mm, with constant pressure and a short residence time of only 9 min. It is clearly observed that the new catalyst is a significant factor in removing sulfur, resulting in a clean fuel. The experimental results provided that the conversion of sulfur compounds is increased via increasing frequency of oscillation, amplitude of oscillation, and oxidation temperature. This study also investigates a kinetic model for sulfur oxidation from real diesel fuel via the ODS process in the OHBR, aiming to estimate the optimal kinetic parameters for the relevant reactions, which were found to follow a first-order rate law.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>