Patent ID: 7837862

Claim:
A method of desulfurizing hydrocarbon fuel comprising sulfur containing molecular species, comprising: flowing the fuel comprising the molecular species sequentially through a series of desulfurizing beds of sorbent material that not only is capable of sorbing the molecular species, but that is also capable of being regenerated multiple times by desorbing and oxidizing the molecular species with air, wherein there is enough of the sorbent material in each bed in the series to decrease the sulfur concentration in the fuel flowing through each bed such that the sulfur concentration in the fuel flowing out of the last bed in the series does not exceed a desired maximum sulfur concentration level for a first period of time; at the end of the first period of time, adding a regenerated bed of the adsorbent material to the end of the series of desulfurizing beds and removing the bed at the front of the series of desulfurizing beds; adding the bed removed from the front of the series of desulfurizing beds to a series of regenerating beds; heating at least some of the beds in the series of regenerating beds and flowing the air through the heated beds to desorb and oxidize the molecular species containing sulfur to regenerate the beds; cooling at least one of the regenerated beds to prepare it for advancement into the end of the series of desulfurizing beds; and continuing flowing the fuel through the beds in the desulfurization series of beds to continue producing fuel from the last bed in the desulfurization series that does not exceed the desired maximum sulfur level for successive periods of time, removing beds from the front of the desulfurization series at the ends of such successive periods of time for the regeneration with hot air, and adding regenerated beds to the end of the desulfurization series as the beds are removed from the front of the desulfurization series.