Desulphurisation process

Abstract

A process for desulphurising hydrocarbons includes the steps of (i) passing a mixture of hydrocarbon and hydrogen over a hydrodesulphurisation catalyst to convert organosulphur compounds present in the hydrocarbon to hydrogen sulphide, (ii) passing the resulting mixture over a hydrogen sulphide sorbent including zinc oxide to reduce the hydrogen sulphide content of the mixture and (iii) passing the hydrogen sulphide-depleted mixture over a further desulphurisation material, where the further desulphurisation material includes one or more nickel compounds, a zinc oxide support material, and optionally one or more promoter metal compounds selected from one or more compounds of iron, cobalt, copper and precious metals, the desulphurisation material having a nickel content in the range 0.3 to 20% by weight and a promoter metal content in the range 0 to 10% by weight.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.