Sulfur compounds in transportation fuels upon burning lead to serious environmental pollution and hence their immediate removal from fuel oils requires urgent attention. Herein, we report the catalytic oxidative desulfurization (ODS) of model and real petroleum distillates using sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) as oxidant over Cu and Ni (1 wt.% each) loaded activated carbon (AC) (derived from banana peels) via carbonization followed by thermal activation. The fresh and post-reaction catalysts were characterized by FTIR, SEM, EDX and BET surface area analyses. Catalytic ODS experiments revealed that at O/S molar ratio of 1:6 and 0.2 g catalyst dosage, a net DBT conversion of 93% within 10 min and 30 °C was achieved by Ni/AC–NaClO catalyst oxidant system. The overall ODS catalytic activity order for different catalysts was: Ni/AC > Cu/AC > AC, while in addition to outstanding performance, Ni/AC catalyst exhibited intriguing stability and recycling performance for five successive reuses. In addition, under the optimized experimental conditions, Ni/AC–NaClO system showed 83%, 90% and 87% total sulfur removal from gasoline, kerosene and diesel oils respectively, outclassing some state-of-the-art catalysts reported. This fascinating performance of Ni/AC–NaClO system was mainly attributed to the presence of super-strong oxidizing species of hypochlorite (OCl⁻) generated from the dissociation of NaClO over the catalyst surface. These findings credit the newly designed, highly cost-effective and efficient Ni/AC–NaClO catalyst–oxidant system as a promising contender for the desulfurization of petroleum distillates on industrial level.

运输燃料中的硫化合物在燃烧时会导致严重的环境污染，因此需要立即从燃料油中去除它们。在此，我们报告了模型和实际石油馏出物的催化氧化脱硫 (ODS)，使用次氯酸钠 (NaClO) 作为氧化剂，在负载铜和镍（各 1 wt.%）的活性炭 (AC)（源自香蕉皮）上通过碳化其次是热激活。通过 FTIR、SEM、EDX 和 BET 表面积分析对新鲜和后反应催化剂进行了表征。催化 ODS 实验表明，在 O/S 摩尔比为 1:6 和 0.2 g 催化剂用量下，Ni/AC-NaClO 催化剂氧化剂体系在 10 min 和 30 °C 内实现了 93% 的 DBT 净转化率。不同催化剂的总ODS催化活性顺序为：Ni/AC > Cu/AC > AC，而除了出色的性能外，Ni/AC 催化剂在连续五次重复使用时表现出耐人寻味的稳定性和回收性能。此外，在优化的实验条件下，Ni/AC-NaClO 体系分别从汽油、煤油和柴油中去除了 83%、90% 和 87% 的总硫，超过了一些最先进的催化剂。Ni/AC-NaClO 体系的这种令人着迷的性能主要归因于次氯酸盐（OCl 超过了报告的一些最先进的催化剂。Ni/AC-NaClO 体系的这种令人着迷的性能主要归因于次氯酸盐（OCl 超过了报告的一些最先进的催化剂。Ni/AC-NaClO 体系的这种令人着迷的性能主要归因于次氯酸盐（OCl^- ) 由 NaClO 在催化剂表面解离产生。这些发现归功于新设计的、具有成本效益和高效的 Ni/AC-NaClO 催化剂-氧化剂系统，是工业级石油馏分脱硫的有希望的竞争者。