Aromatic saturation: A means to cleaner transportation fuels

Abstract

In the era of highly informed public opinions about environmental issues, requirement of "reformulated" transportation fuels need not be over-emphasized. In this work recent developments pertaining to compositional changes of diesel, chiefly saturation of aromatics, including those with multi-rings, have been reviewed. High aromatic content results in low cetane number of diesel and increased emission of particulate matters. These particulate matters as well as aromatics are known to be responsible for diseases like cancer, tuberculosis, etc. Here reactivity of aromatic compounds in hydrogenation reaction, thermodynamic, catalysis, and kinetic aspects of hydrodearomatization reaction have been addressed. . Effects of poison like sulfur on the catalysts' performance and methods to resist the poisons have been discussed.