Adsorptive Desulfurization of Crude Oil with Clinoptilolite Zeolite

Abstract

Crude oil; is a fossil fuel containing carbon, hydrogen, sulfur and many other components and is one of the world's largest and most widely used energy sources. However, in order for crude oil to be used as an energy source, it must be refined. With the use of petroleum products obtained as a result of refining, very high amounts of SOx gas are released into the atmosphere. These gases seriously harm both the environment and human health. This study aimed to reduce the amount of sulfur in crude oil and reduce its possible damages by using clinoptilolite zeolite (CZ). For this purpose, first of all, CZ; was characterized by SEM and XRF. Then, 0.1 g, 0.5 g, 1 g, 2 g and 5 g of the characterized CZ were weighed and added to the 50 mL crude oil samples separately. The mixture was mixed with a magnetic stirrer at 400 rpm for 60 and 120 minutes at room temperature before going through with an adsorptive desulfurization step. Afterwards, it was separated from the adsorbent by centrifugation and the residual sulfur amount was determined by ASTM D 1552-03 method. As a result of this study, which was carried out in an experimental laboratory environment; it has been observed that the desulfurization efficiency varies between 0.75 and 5.76 % (w/v) with the use of CZ adsorbent. Moreover; it was determined that the highest sulfur removal was obtained by using 5 g CZ.