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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