Patent ID: 8177963

Claim:
A process for removing sulfur from a sulfur-containing petroleum feedstream having at least a portion of its sulfur in the form of hindered dibenzothiophene compounds, comprising: a) forming a mixture of an effective amount of water and said sulfur-containing petroleum feedstream; b) passing said mixture to an electrochemical cell; c) subjecting said mixture in the presence of nitrogen gas to an effective voltage and current that will result in the partial hydrogenation of at least a fraction of said hindered dibenzothiophene compounds to hydrogenated naphthenobenzothiophene compounds, thereby resulting in a partially-hydrogenated petroleum feedstream; d) hydrodesulfurizing at least a portion of said partially-hydrogenated petroleum feedstream by contacting the partially-hydrogenated petroleum feedstream with a hydrodesulfurization catalyst in the presence of hydrogen at hydrodesulfurization conditions, thereby resulting in a reduced-sulfur petroleum product stream and hydrogen sulfide; and e) separating the hydrogen sulfide from said reduced-sulfur petroleum product stream; wherein the reduced-sulfur petroleum product stream has a lower sulfur content by wt % than the sulfur-containing petroleum feedstream.