A NOVEL APPROACH TO CATALYTIC DESULFURIZATION OF COAL

A gas chromatographic method has been developed for the quantitation of sulfur removed from coal as tributyl phosphine sulfide (SPBu{sub 3}). This method also works very well for speciating and quantitating the products of sulfur removal from organosulfur removal from organosulfur compounds such as dibenzothiophene. Remarkably mild conditions have been discovered for quantitative sulfur removal from dibenzothiophene and other organosulfur systems using relatively cheap elemental sodium.