Pervaporative desulfurization of gasoline - Separation of thiophene/n-heptane mixture

This paper presents the recent advances in pervaporative reduction of sulfur content in gasoline. Methods of preliminary selection of membrane active layer material are presented. Interactions between gasoline components (typical hydrocarbon and sulfur species) and membranes are showed. Influence of pervaporation process parameters i.e. feed temperature, downstream pressure and feed flow rate on the separation efficiency is discussed. Investigations of the influence of sulfur concentration in fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) gasoline on membrane performance have been conducted. A series of PV tests was carried out to investigate the separation properties of the commercial composite membrane with an active layer made of poly(dimethylsiloxane) and to determine the efficiency of organic sulphur compound (thiophene) removal from model thiophene/n-heptane mixture depending on its concentration.