Catalytic oxidative desulfurization of DBT using green catalyst (Mo/MCM-41) derived from coal fly ash

Current study presents the synthesis of mesoporous silica material (MCM-41) derived from coal fly ash as a catalyst support material for the catalytic oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of liquid fuels. In this work, molybdenum active species were incorporated into the mesoporous silica (Mo/MCM-41) by the incipient wetimpregnation process. The obtained Mo/MCM-41 was characterized by FESEM, HRTEM, XRD, and FT-IR to confirm its structure and functional groups present on the catalyst. Characterization study revealed that mesoporous silica was successfully synthesized from coal fly ash. Desulfurization of dibenzothiophene (DBT) containing model fuel was investigated by using synthesized catalyst, approximately 94% of DBT removal was achieved by optimizing the influencing parameters of ODS process. The ODS results proved that Mo/MCM-41 could be the potential catalyst for reduction of DBT from liquid fuels. Oxidative reaction of DBT follows the pseudo first order reaction kinetic. DBT oxidation mechanism was proposed.