BP could debut oxidative desulfurization scheme

Diesel Fuel News, April 15, 2002 by Jack Peckham

BP reveals it's testing an ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) oxidative desulfurization technology at its Naperville, Ill., research facility, but final conclusions are several months away.

According to BP's just-issued Frontiers bulletin, this new catalytic technique "not yet commercialized is to add an oxidative desulfurization stage following conventional hydrotreatment. This polishing process is to bring sulfur in diesel down from around 50 ppm to 5 ppm."

"Although most existing hydrotreating units operating at medium and high pressures -- above 50 bar -- could be modified by other means to achieve the same result, low pressure hydrotreaters would struggle to get to 10 ppm with conventional modification," BP's technology group manager Ted Masiulanis says in the article.

"But oxidative desulfurization will even work for low-pressure units," he added.

Elaborating on this, BP's Graham Butler, manager of new technologies, told Diesel Fuel News that BP's oxidative desulfurization research actually goes back several years.

What's changed in recent years is that the baseline sulfur level requiring further treatment to ULSD has fallen substantially, making BP's evolving technique look more attractive now. The other key is technology progress.

Whether this technology could be extended to baseline fuels of today's average 350-ppm sulfur diesel, however, could depend on individual refinery configurations.

BP hopes to announce its conclusions on this latest oxidative desulfurization research later this year, Butler told us.

First potential application is in Europe, where opportunities to market 10-ppm ULSD are opening up rapidly.

Meantime, BP is also evaluating "Nebula" ULSD desulfurization catalysts from Akzo (see Diesel Fuel News 4/1/02, p8) at a refinery in the UK, in addition to the new oxidative technology work at its Naperville center.

BP announces more news on the clean-diesel front:

"By 2008, effectively all of BP's fuels -- around 99% -- will contain less than 50-ppm sulfur, and half of this will be 'sulfur free,"' or less than 10 ppm sulfur, BP says.

"To achieve these low-sulfur targets and meet future regulatory standards, BP is focusing on introducing new technology into its refining processes, requiring capital investment in excess of $1 billion by 2008."

BP's own proprietary fuels production now totals 1.2 million barrels/day of gasoline and 600,000 b/d of diesel through its 17 refineries around the world. Excluding its recent acquisition of the Veba refinery in Germany, BP already produces one-third of its gasoline and diesel as ultra-low sulfur grades.