Experimental study on deep desulfurization of MTBE by electrochemical oxidation and distillation

Abstract

With the increasing awareness of environmental protection, deep desulfurization of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), which is the most important octane booster in gasoline, is extremely urgent. Herein, a new desulfurization method, involving the combination of electrochemical oxidation and distillation, is proposed to reduce the sulfur content in MTBE. Under optimum operating conditions, the sulfur content of real MTBE decreases from 132.5 μg g⁻¹ to 2.3 μg g⁻¹ and the desulfurization efficiency reaches 98.25%. The oxidation products with high boiling points can be separated by distillation. FTIR analyses prove that electrochemical oxidation has no influence on the main properties of MTBE. Moreover, GC/MS is used to study the conversion of model organic sulfides (dimethyl disulfide, diethyl sulfide and butyl mercaptan) in the electrochemical oxidative desulfurization process. Finally, the possible reaction mechanism of the electrochemical oxidative desulfurization of MTBE is proposed.