Catalytic oxidative desulfurization of tire pyrolysis oil, fuel oils and their distillates

Thermochemical conversion of waste tires to useful energy resources is attractive to obtain pyrolysis oils with potential economic value. However, the high sulfur and nitrogen contents prevents its direct application as a drop-in fuel in refineries. Though, catalytic hydrotreatment can reduce these heteroatoms, the prohibitive costs of high pressure equipments and harsh reaction conditions necessitates other options including oxidative desulfurization to be explored. This work package with AirScience Technologies proposes to: 1) develop a protocol to fractionate the virgin pyrolytic and fuel oils; 2) develop catalysts for the upgradation of the various cuts via oxidative desulfurization; 3) develop adsorbents for the removal of oxidized heteroatoms; 4) perform regeneration study of optimized catalyst and adsorbent; and 5) scale-up the process from 100 mL to 2 L batch using the optimized catalyst and adsorbent. The proposed project will be beneficial to our industrial partners and Canadian Waste Recycling Industries.

Faculty Supervisor:

Ajay K Dalai

Student:

Jasmine Kaur;Phillip Boahene

Partner:

AirScience Technologies Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - chemical / biological

Sector:

Manufacturing

University:

University of Saskatchewan