Maritime transport, although passing through major technological developments, relies almost solely on using conventional fuels for shipping as the recent data shows. While greener alternatives catch-up, desulfurization of conventional feeds seems to be the near and long-term solution.

In this recent publication by TeamRoberts and Aramco we demonstrate using a liquid-liquid extraction process up to one-third of this sulfur can be removed in a single step and the desulfurization reaching as high as 60% for multiple steps. Throughout these trials, using advanced characterization techniques such as FTICRMS, elucidation of sulfur species migration between oil-solvent has been shown, without loss of major hydrocarbon species constituting the oil. We further demonstrate how the solvent can be recovered using distillation and thereafter reused for a potential large-scale implementation of this approach.

This marks the beginning of our publication efforts in general on (heavy) fuel oil desulfurization and more specifically on the demonstration-translation of KAUST-developed uODS technology.

AUTHORS: Shekhar R Kulkarni, Ümit Görçüm, Madhumitha Dhanasekaran, Varaha P Sarvothaman, Naydu Zambrano, Deoras M Prabhudharwadkar, Shuixiu Tang, Vasileios G Samaras, Musaed S. Ghrami, Abdulrahman E. Sayed, Mohammed R. Dossary, Abdennour Bourane, Jumanah Alsaeed, William L. Roberts

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