Efficient solvent regeneration of Basolite C300 used in the liquid-phase adsorption of dibenzothiophene

The metal-organic framework (MOF) Basolite C300 displays excellent performance for the removal of dibenzothiophene (DBT) in a model system consisting in DBT in a mixture of 2,2,4-trimethylpentane (TMP). With the aim to exploit this property in a continuous operation, it is imperative to develop a simple and effective regeneration procedure. Our previous work (Fuel 105 (2013) 459-465) demonstrated that there is only partial thermal regeneration of this system at 473 K, which makes this approach of limited value. In the present work, we developed a significantly more effective regeneration procedure in which the DBT-saturated MOF C300 system was washed with polar solvents, such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol. It was found that regeneration using methanol as a solvent at temperatures near ambient (304 K) is highly effective and allows for the recovery of the initial adsorption capacity. After several regeneration cycles, both the crystallinity and the initial sorption capacity of the C300 system are essentially unchanged.