Beneficial effects of polycyclic aromatics on oxidative desulfurization of light cycle oil over phosphotungstic acid (PTA) catalyst

• Phosphotungstic acid catalyst was active for the ODS of LCO feed.
• Nitrogen compounds strongly inhibit the ODS of refractory sulfur compounds.
• 2-ring aromatics in LCO promoted the ODS activity via dissolving oxidized products.

The amphiphilic phosphotungstic acid catalyst (A-PTA) was prepared with quaternary ammonium salt to apply for the oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of light cycle oil (LCO), resulting in high activity of the ODS conversion of 95%, at H2O2/S ratio of 10 and 353 K. The model reaction tests for the ODS of refractory sulfur compounds in n-octane demonstrated that the addition of indole drastically reduced overall ODS conversion, while the introduction of 1-methylnaphthalene fully recovered the ODS activity, which were attributed to the high solubility of the oxidized S or N compounds in the 2-ring aromatics.

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