Adsorption of asphaltenes onto CaO, Co3O4, Fe3O4 and ZnO supported on 13X zeolite - An isothermal study

Abstract

Asphaltene has the highest molecular weight and the most polar organizers from petroleum. In this paper, the content of the asphaltenes from a crude oil was extracted and the amount of asphaltene in crude oil was measured to be 3.88%. Four metal oxides were added to 13X zeolite and 13X,10%CaO, 13X,10%Co3O4, 13X,10%Fe3O4 and 13X,10%ZnO were prepared. The adsorption behavior of the adsorbents was evaluated in asphaltenes adsorption. The capacity of the adsorbent for asphaltenes adsorption is as follows: 13X,10%CaO> 13X,10%Co3O4> 13X,10%Fe3O4> 13X,10%ZnO. The isotherm of adsorption of the asphaltenes over the adsorbent was studied and resulted that the experimental data could best fit with the Langmuir model, indicating that adsorption is as a monolayer.