ABSTRACT
Heterocyclic compounds have found wide and diverse applications. Aromatic nitrogen-heterocyclic compounds, aka N-heterocyclic compounds, are abundantly present in petroleum, shale oil, the US tar sands, Canadian bitumen, refinery streams, and liquid fossil fuels. Combustion of liquid fossil fuels and by-products of the petroleum refinery process causes air pollution due to the formation of toxic nitrogen oxides NOx, and acid rains. In the industrial-scale commercial processes for the removal of nitrogen-containing organic compounds from refinery streams, catalytic hydrodenitrogenation (HDN) is conducted at an elevated temperature and pressure, simultaneously with catalytic hydrodesulfurization (HDS). In the majority of reported studies on adsorption of aromatic N-heterocyclic compounds, mesoporous Mesoporous metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are expected to contain the coordinatively unsaturated site (CUS) of the transition metal. MOFs with their very high surface area and large pore sizes are suitable candidates for the adsorptive removal of aromatic N-heterocyclic compounds from liquid fossil fuels and refinery streams.
