CeO_x doping on a TiO₂-SiO₂ supporter enhances Ag based adsorptive desulfurization for diesel

In this work, the impact of CeO_x doping on a TiO₂-SiO₂ supporter on the Ag based adsorptive desulfurization for Chinese standard diesel was studied. The dispersion and valence states of Ce, Ti and Ag species were characterized, and the impact of Ce doping was investigated. The results indicated that Ce species and Ti species were dispersed evenly on the surface of SiO₂ via a novel co-impregnation method. Following CeO_x doping, the Ag species were in the form of oxides (about 5nm) instead of metallic Ag particles (about 35nm), which is due to the large amount of coordinative unsaturated sites provided by the interaction between CeO_x and TiO₂, as well as the oxidation-reduction property of CeO_x. The Ag in the active oxide state (Ag₂O₂) and dispersed evenly on the supporter could interact with sulfur compounds more favorably, and therefore showed a good performance in the adsorptive desulfurization. In both static batch and dynamic breakthrough desulfurization tests, Ag-CeO_x/TiO₂-SiO₂ was proved to be a more efficient adsorbent compared with Ag-TiO₂-SiO₂. It was found that the desulfurization performance of Ag-TiO₂-SiO₂ exhibited an excellent improvement (22.5%) after being doped with CeO_x. In the static equilibrium tests, the equilibrium sulfur capacity of Ag-CeO_x/TiO₂-SiO₂ was up to 5.38mg/g for CN-II diesel (sulfur content 952.9mg/kg) and the sulfur content of the CN-IV diesel (sulfur content 39.0mg/kg) after desulfurization was less than 10mg/kg, which could meet the CN-V standard.