Desulfurization of JP-8 Fuel Using Metal-Loaded Meso/Macroporous Aluminosilicates

Title: Desulfurization of JP-8 fuel using metal-loaded meso/macroporous aluminosilicates

Jessica St. John,¹ Dat T. Tran,² Deryn Chu², and Scott R. J. Oliver¹

¹Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064; soliver@ucsc.edu

²U.S. Army Research Laboratory, RDRL-SED-C, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783; dat.t.tran4.civ@mail.mil

The U.S. Army is interested in using JP-8 for fuel cells, but the fuel must first be processed to remove organic sulfur compounds to avoid catalyst poisoning.  These organic sulfur compounds are more difficult to remove than those found in lighter fuels. Sorbents capable of removing these challenging impurities under ambient conditions would allow for on-site fuel processing.

  In this work, mesoporous and macroporous aluminosilicate materials were explored for sulfur removal from JP-8 fuel at room temperature.  The desulfurization capacities of cerium and silver loaded aluminosilicate frameworks are compared.  The metals were loaded both as extraframework species and metal-substituted within the framework.  Varying the silicon to aluminum ratio in the frameworks as well as pore size are reported for maximization of desulfurization and breakthrough threshold.