For the first time, a porous membrane-assisted flow reactor was designed and evaluated for the efficient removal of sulfur compounds from crude oil. In this procedure, an ionic liquid 1-Ethyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate (EMIM][CF3SO3) was immobilized in the porous membrane, to act as supported liquid-membrane and a polar organic solvent (n-methyl pyrrolidone) was used as acceptor phase. Samples were continuously flowed to the supported-liquid membrane and sulfur compounds were diffused through the porous membrane and extracted by the acceptor phase. An electrical potential was applied in both the sample and acceptor phase, which further enhanced the sulfur compound diffusion via electro kinetic migration in to the acceptor phase. Diesel was spiked with known concentrations of nineteen sulfur compounds and various experimental conditions influencing the electro-membrane extraction were optimized. The optimized conditions were applied to crude oils to achieve higher extraction efficiency. The results revealed that 58 % of total sulfur content including dibenzotiophene (DBT) and its derivatives was reduced from Arabian light crude oil, 53 % from Arabian medium crude oil and 44% from diesel

Electromembrane extraction of sulfur compounds from crude oils

249th National Meeting (2015)

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