Concentration and Removal of Nitrogen and Sulfur Containing Compounds from Organic Liquid Phases Using Electrochemically Reversed Chemical Complexation

A process is being developed to concentrate and remove sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds from organic liquid phases. These phases could include coal liquids, oil from oil shale or tar sands, as well as conventional crude oil. This process uses reversible complexation and electrolysis. A cyclical contacting scheme is proposed: the compounds are first extracted from a polluted hydrocarbon phase using an aqueous phase containing a complexing agent; the aqueous phase is then contacted with a waste hydrocarbon phase and the complexing agent is oxidized, releasing any complexed pollutants into the waste hydrocarbon phase. This cycle is repeated to extract more pollutants, i.e. sulfur and nitrogen compounds, from the contaminated phase and concentrate them in the waste phase. A description of the process and preliminary results for one system are presented.