Effectiveness of metal–organic frameworks for removal of refractory organo-sulfur compound present in liquid fuels

Adsorption of organo-sulfur compounds present in liquid fuels on metal–organic framework (MOF) compounds is an efficient alternative to the conventional hydrodesulfurization process. It has been demonstrated that the extent of dibenzothiophene (DBT) adsorption at temperatures close to ambient (304 K) is much higher on MOFs systems than on the benchmarked Y-type zeolite. In addition, the DBT adsorption capacity depends strongly on the MOF type as illustrated by the much higher extent of adsorption observed on the copper- (C300) and Al-containing (A100) MOF systems than on the Fe-containing (F300) MOF counterpart. With the aim to investigate the operation in consecutive cycles, the MOFs used in adsorption experiments were regenerated. In addition, the remaining S-containing compounds were identified and quantified by photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Examination of S2p core-level spectrum of the adsorbed S-compounds of regenerated MOFs pointed out that a fraction of these molecules become oxidized into S(VI) species.