Chemical Processing

Our catalysts AdE-Sulfur™ and AdE-Sorb™ can be applied into a variety of chemical processing applications to remove sulfur to levels below 1 ppm. Application areas include sulfur tolerant catalysts, desulfurization of bioethanol, natural gas and syngas purification.

Sulfur Tolerant Catalysts for Hydrogenation of Solvents

The presence of trace amount of sulfur (5~300 ppm) in aromatic solvents such as A200H and tetrahydronaphthalene solvents is detrimental to few chemical processing applications. In fuel cell applications, the sulfur content deactivates the copper hydrogenation catalyst, therefore it is critical for sulfur levels of solvents to be lower than 2 ppm.

ADEM’s customized sulfur tolerant hydrogenation catalyst can lower the sulfur levels, while hydrogenation activity is sustained for a increased duration.

Desulfurization of Bioethanol

The removal of sulfur from bioethanol is an important problem to be solved in order to use it as an alternative energy source in fuel cells. Depending on biomass feedstock and the fermentation route used, bioethanol contains sulfur impurities. These sulfur impurities found in bioethanol, such as dimethyl sulfide and dimethyl sulfoxide deactivate the catalyst.

Adsorptive desulfurization is a more economical method over hydrodesulfurization for the deep desulfurization of bioethanol.