Catalytic Oxidative Desulfurization of Gasoline Using Ionic Liquid Emulsion System

With the aim of deep desulfurization of the gasoline, an amphiphilic catalyst, which is composed of lacunary anion [PW11O39](7-) and quaternary ammonium cation [C18H37(CH3)(3)]N+, assembled in hydrophobic ionic liquid emulsions, can oxidize the sulfur compounds present in oil into their corresponding sulfones under ambient reaction conditions. In this process, catalytic oxidation of sulfur-containing molecules in model oil was investigated in detail under different reaction conditions (including different desulfurization systems, H2O2/DBT molar ratio, temperature, and various sulfur compounds). Moreover; this ionic liquid emulsion system could be recycled five times with an unnoticeable decrease in catalytic activity, and, from the kinetics study, it can be shown that the catalytic oxidative reaction is a pseudofirst-order reaction and the half-life is 30.4 min. Furthermore, the mechanism of catalytic oxidation desulfurization was elaborated, and the total sulfur level of real gasoline can be decreased from 1236 to 65 ppm after catalytic oxidation using an ionic liquid emulsion system.