摘要 |
<p>This invention relates to the desulfurization of a hydrocarbon feedstock by contacting said feedstock with an aqueous metal hydroxide solution, thus resulting in a desulfurized feedstock and an aqueous metal sulfide stream. In the present invention, the aqueous metal sulfide stream is split into at least three fractions and each fraction is passed to a different electrochemical cell, connected in series to regenerate the metal hydroxide required in the desulfurization process and recover sulfur, metal hydroxide, and hydrogen. In a preferred embodiment, at least a portion of the metal hydroxide that is produced in the electrochemical metal hydroxide regeneration process of the present invention is recycled for use in the process for desulfurizing the sulfur-containing hydrocarbon feedstock.</p> |