R & D in Oxidative Desulfurization of Fuels Technologies: From Chemistry to Patents

At present, a large number of research centers and private companies worldwide have been interested in the development of Oxidative Desulfurization (OD) processes to reduce the sulfur levels in transportation fuels. The application of this OD expertise has given rise to innovative technologies, which could be integrated with existing HydroDeSulfurization (HDS) units in a revamp situation for the efficient production of cheap and environmentally friendly fuels. The literature in this area is extensive due to the amount of research performed in the last 10 years. However, there are few reviews addressing different issues of OD. To our knowledge, only a review specific for OD processes has been published previously. In this review, we present and discuss the results obtained in the development of new catalytic systems for OD process, with the aim of understanding the State of the Art based on information published in scientific, technological and patent information sources through bibliometric and content analysis tools, and also integrating the status of the commercial development of the technology. It should be noticed that chemistry process in this technology involves the oxidant system, the catalyst, the reaction conditions, the reactor engineering and the extraction process. After the exhaustive revision of the literature, we found that those technologies have a very good present in research and technology developments and a promising future in terms of the potential of commercial applicability.