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Commercial diesel is often loaded with organosulphur compounds including hard-to-remove dibenzothiophene DBT and other derivatives. Following uncommon and simple procedure, dibenzothiophene was selectively removed upon diesel acidification by acetic acid prior to activated carbon adsorption. Initially, competitive adsorption tests from synthetic fuel proved that dibenzothiophene is preferentially removed over di/tri and tetra-aromatic hydrocarbons upon fuel acidification by 5% ( by vol .) acetic acid. The efficacy of the proposed method was further validated by removing dibenzothiophene from commercial diesel containing 2578 (±15) mg kg −1 . The removal of DBT from complex diesel has increased from 27% to 55% upon acidification by 5% acetic acid. Acidity value of the treated diesel is within the regulated limit giving more chance for the new procedure for practical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]