Adsorptive desulfurization of liquid Jet-A fuel at ambient conditions with an improved adsorbent for on-board fuel treatment for SOFC applications

• Adsorptive desulfurization of Jet-A fuel at ambient condition.
• Low cost pseudo-boehmite and diatomite mixture are used as support materials.
• At breakpoint concentration of 10 ppmw adsorption capacity is 1.4 mg S/g adsorbent.
• Regenerated adsorbent in 1–4 cycles recovered 75–51% of the desulfurization capacity.

This article examines and discusses a promising high performance sulfur adsorbent, NiO–CeO2/Al2O3–SiO2, for the desulfurization of Jet-A fuel at ambient conditions. The authors investigated the effects of the amount of nitric acid added during the preparation of the adsorbent supporter, with pseudo-boehmite (70 wt.% Al2O3) and diatomite (SiO2) used as support materials in the adsorbent. Desulfurization performance due to percentage difference of catalyst species, as well as regeneration of the adsorbent, was evaluated. It was discovered that the improved adsorbent, with optimized material composition and processing procedures, can approach a sulfur adsorption capacity of 1.4 and 3.22 mg-S/g-ads at breakthrough points of 10 and 50 ppmw, respectively. The treated fuel volumes reached 3.02 and 3.58 ml/g-ads at 10 and 50 ppmw, respectively. The improved adsorbent was also tested for four regeneration times. At a breakpoint of 50 ppmw S in effluent fuel, about 75%, 66%, 59% and 51% sulfur adsorption capabilities were recovered in the regenerated adsorbent from cycle 1 to cycle 4. This impressive desulfurization performance at room temperature, and the use of pseudo-boehmite (70 wt.% Al2O3) and diatomite (SiO2) other than molecule sieves for the support materials, make this sulfur adsorbent very promising.