Sulfur compounds have significant geochemical information, and the removal of sulfur from petroleum products is one of the most important tasks in petroleum refining. However, it is a challenging task to reveal the chemical composition of sulfide at the molecular level because of its complex composition. Unremitting efforts have been made to develop methods for the separation and characterization of sulfur compounds in petroleum and its products in order to understand the mechanisms of their geological origin and their transformation in petroleum processing. Sulfur compounds include thiophenes, sulfides, thiols, sulfoxides, and sulfones, etc. The sulfur element is mainly from sulfate in the sedimentary environment, but the combination of sulfur into hydrocarbons could occur in different ways. Most sulfur compounds are generated in the early diagenetic period through the reaction of unsaturated organic matter with H₂S or elemental sulfur released from sulfate via bacterial sulfate reduction. The composition of the sulfur compound in petroleum could be largely altered by thermal maturation, leading to an increase in the relative abundance of highly condensed aromatic sulfur compounds. Another important pathway of sulfur addition is thermochemical reactions between sulfate and hydrocarbons at high temperatures. Some sulfur compounds have a relatively weak chemical stability and are easily decomposed into small-molecule sulfur compounds in petroleum processing. Removing sulfur from petroleum is an essential task for petroleum refinement and upgrading, in which the steric hindrance effect is the most important factor affecting the desulfurization activity of sulfur compounds via hydrotreating. Some polar sulfur compounds are difficult to hydrogenate to remove sulfur; however, the chemical structures of these compounds are unclear. High-resolution mass spectrometry has revealed the high complexity of the molecular composition of sulfur compounds in heavy oils and their polar fractions. However, understanding of their molecular structure is limited, and further research should focus on the formation and transformation mechanism of these polar sulfur compounds. This review will focus on the molecular composition of petroleum sulfur compounds with a collection of topics of sulfur compounds that covers the upstream and downstream petroleum industry, including separation and characterization methods, molecular and structural composition of various sulfur compounds, mechanisms of their geological origin, and their transformation during petroleum processing.

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石油及其产品中的硫化合物综述：最新技术和前景

硫化合物具有重要的地球化学信息，从石油产品中去除硫是石油炼制中最重要的任务之一。然而，由于其复杂的组成，在分子水平上揭示硫化物的化学成分是一项具有挑战性的任务。为了解其地质成因及其在石油加工过程中的转化机理，人们一直致力于开发石油及其产品中硫化合物的分离和表征方法。硫化合物包括噻吩、硫化物、硫醇、亚砜和砜等。硫元素主要来自沉积环境中的硫酸盐，但硫与烃的结合可能以不同的方式发生。₂通过细菌硫酸盐还原从硫酸盐中释放的 S 或元素硫。石油中硫化合物的组成可以通过热成熟在很大程度上改变，导致高度浓缩的芳香族硫化合物的相对丰度增加。添加硫的另一个重要途径是硫酸盐和碳氢化合物在高温下的热化学反应。一些硫化合物的化学稳定性相对较弱，在石油加工中容易分解成小分子硫化合物。从石油中脱硫是石油精炼和改质的一项重要任务，其中空间位阻效应是影响硫化合物加氢脱硫活性的最重要因素。一些极性硫化合物很难加氢脱硫；然而，这些化合物的化学结构尚不清楚。高分辨率质谱揭示了重油及其极性馏分中硫化合物分子组成的高度复杂性。然而，对其分子结构的了解有限，进一步的研究应侧重于这些极性硫化合物的形成和转化机制。本综述将重点关注石油硫化合物的分子组成，其中包含一系列涵盖石油工业上下游的硫化合物主题，包括分离和表征方法、各种硫化合物的分子和结构组成、其地质起源机制、