Development of Logistic Fuel Desulfurizers Endowed With Nanoartifacts

Sulfur content in the logitstic fuels such as diesel, jet fuel and coal poses great challenge, as it leads to severe deactivation and poisioning of the reforming catalysts. The utilization of logistic fuel in high efficiency fuel cells as hydrogen-rich reformates, therefore, necessitates that the sulfur (mostly present as organosulfur species) be either eliminated totally, or its level be reduced below such levels as not to mitigate the long-term sustained performance of the reforming catalysts. Besides, SOFC anodes are also quickly poisoned by sulfur present even in trace amounts (1–2 ppm). Thus, desulfurization becomes an important and integral component in harnessing clean power from these abundunt fuel resources. Recently, we have developed a series of novel sulfur sorbents with agile scavengers dispersed thoroughly and uniformly on lightweight, highly periodic nanoporous biomimetic or zeolitic inert matrices. These formulations have been tested in a range of temperatures for durations ranging from 12 to 100 hours in sulfur-bearing gas streams. In this presentation, their synthesis, characterization (before and after sulfidation) by XRD, SEM/EDS, RBSE imaging, on-line real-time quantification in gas chromatography in conjunction with systematic chemical analyses to gauge their efficacy in sulfur removal will be discussed.