Decreasing dibenzothiophene from liquid petroleum fuels through a novel graphitic catalyst: Achieving a sweet combustion into the environment

Decreasing sulfur structures and attaining a green fuel is an appropriate approach for the environment. In this work, a graphitic-carbon-nitride catalyst was introduced and modified by iron (III) oxide. The analyses of FT-IR, XRD, and SEM specified its characteristics. The catalyst with hydrogen peroxide was used for a model oil con-taining dibenzothiophene (DBT) and then validated through real oils. The results demonstrated that the DBT's removal of 91% can be attained from model oil at optimum conditions. In these situations, it was achieved 73 %, 83.5%, and 84.7 % for gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil, respectively. Cubic order and pseudo-first order kinetic models were presented for the process with high accuracy. A mechanism was suggested for converting DBT to DBTO2. The reusability of the catalyst was five times. Finally, this work was compared with other ones. The catalyst had a good performance, safe, fast, and cost-effective for cleaning liquid fuels.

Automated summary

Decreasing sulfur structures and achieving green fuel is an appropriate approach for environmental protection. In this study, a graphitic-carbon-nitride catalyst modified by iron (III) oxide was introduced and used to remove dibenzothiophene (DBT) from model oil and real oils. The catalyst showed a high removal efficiency for DBT in both model oil (91%) and real oils (73%, 83.5%, and 84.7% for gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil, respectively). Kinetic models were developed to describe the process and a mechanism for converting DBT to DBTO2 was proposed. The catalyst exhibited good performance, reusability for five cycles, and was cost-effective for cleaning liquid fuels.