Sulfur Compounds in Refinery HDS Feedstocks
The refinery HDS feedstocks (naphtha, kerosene, diesel oil, and heavier oils) contain a wide range of organic sulfur compounds, including thiols, thiophenes, organic sulfides and disulfides, and many others. These organic sulfur compounds are products of the degradation of sulfur containing biological components, present during the natural formation of the fossil fuel, petroleum crude oil.
When the HDS process is used to desulfurize a refinery naphtha, it is necessary to remove the total sulfur down to the parts per million range or lower in order to prevent poisoning the noble metal catalysts in the subsequent catalytic reforming of the naphthas.
When the process is used for desulfurizing diesel oils, the latest environmental regulations in the United States and Europe, requiring what is referred to as ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD), in turn requires that very deep hydrodesulfurization is needed. In the very early 2000s, the governmental regulatory limits for highway vehicle diesel was within the range of 300 to 500 ppm by weight of total sulfur. As of 2006, the total sulfur limit for highway diesel is in the range of 15 to 30 ppm by weight.
Read more about this topic: Hydrodesulfurization
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