Oxidative desulfurization of real and model fuel using vanadium–chromium bimetallic catalysts supported on KIT-6

In this research, a simultaneous catalytic extraction–oxidation system for model and real fuel desulfurization has been investigated. To do this, the vanadium–chromium catalysts were supported on a mesoporous silica substrate (KIT-6) by a two-step impregnation method. Different analyses such as FT-IR, XRD, SEM, TEM, ICP, BET, elemental mapping, EDX, and TPR were used to characterize catalysts. According to the obtained results, the catalyst with maximum vanadium oxide content (CVK-C) showed the highest catalytic activity for the removal of dibenzothiophene from the model fuel and sulfur-containing compounds from the real fuel (gasoline) in the oxidative desulfurization process. In this catalytic system, the reaction was carried out under different conditions such as the amount of catalyst, type of catalyst, temperature, time, oxidizing value, type of extracting solvent, and the ratio of extracting solvent to model fuel. Under optimal conditions, the removal of dibenzothiophene was 97% from model fuel (n-octane) and the removal of sulfur-containing compounds from the real fuel was above 90%. The catalyst can be recovered up to 4 times without significant reduction in catalytic activity.