Patent ID: 8088711

Claim:
An oxidative desulfurization catalyst for use with a hydrocarbon feedstock comprising: a solid carbon support material having a surface area of at least 500 m 2 /g; said solid carbon support material comprising oxidizing groups appended to the surface, wherein the oxidizing groups are selected from the group consisting of sulfur trioxide, and nitrogen dioxide, and combinations thereof, wherein the sulfur trioxide and nitrogen dioxide groups are appended to the surface of the solid carbon support material by the steps of first contacting the support material with a gas that includes sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, or a combination thereof, and then contacting the support material and the sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide, or combination thereof with molecular oxygen to produce sulfur trioxide or nitrogen dioxide; wherein the first step of contacting the support material with the gas that includes sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide or nitrogen dioxide is conducted at a temperature of between about 0° C. and 100° C.; wherein the gas has sufficiently low water content to present the formation of acid; and wherein the oxidative desulfurization catalyst is operable to remove thiophenes from the hydrocarbon feedstock.