Photoassisted Desulfurization Induced by Visible-Light Irradiation for the Production of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel Using Nanoparticles of CdO

The heterogeneous photocatalytic desulfurization processes have been paid wide attention due to their effectiveness in removing the condensed organo-sulfur compounds. Such methods may gain greater consideration via utilizing the visible light in general and sun spectrum in particular. This research work aims to produce low sulfur diesel fuel through a catalyzed photochemical route using nanoparticles of CdO under the visible-light irradiation. Two various structures of CdO were prepared in this study by both the chemical precipitation and autoignition techniques. The structural and morphological characteristics of the obtained cadmium oxides were determined via different tools of analyzes. The production of a low sulfur diesel fuel was then investigated under various operating parameters, such as type of light source, catalyst-to-feed dosage, and reaction time. The effect of adding oxidizing agents at different concentrations on the desulfurization process was also studied. After the maximum sulfur removal had been detected under the optimum conditions, the ultimate removal of sulfur was attained through a subsequent solvent extraction step. A diesel fuel with a sulfur content of 45 ppm was acquired at the end of this research study. A total sulfur removal of 99.6 wt % was obtained because the original diesel fuel feedstock has an overall concentration of the sulfur compounds of 11 500 ppm.