Oxidative/adsorptive desulfurization of model diesel oil by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma in the presence of air as oxygen resource was studied. This new system exhibited excellent desulfurization effect at room temperature when FeCl3-SiO2 is used as catalyst and adsorbent. The sulfur content of DBT in model oil can be decreased from 200 ppm to 3 ppm (S-removal rate up to 98.4%) under optimum reaction conditions (air flow rate (upsilon), 90 ml/min; amplitude of applied voltage (U) on DBD, 30 kV; input frequency (f), 600 Hz; catalyst amount (omega), 3 wt%; the reaction time (t), 30 min). It is obvious that the DBD/FeCl3-SiO2 had better desulfurization ability than the DBD, FeCl3, and SiO2 were used alone. Moreover, the good desulfurization rate of BT (benzothiophene) and 4,6-DMDBT (4,6-dimethyl-dibenzothiophene) could reach 94.8% and 92.7% under the above conditions, and the sulfur removal selectivity for S-compounds followed the order of DBT > BT > 4,6-DMDBT. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
