Deacidification of diesel using tetramethylammonium hydroxid/ammonia under demulsifier

Abstract

Acids in diesel bring great harm to storage devices, transportation facilities and engines. Acids in diesel were removed by tetramethylammonium hydroxid (TMAH)/ammonia under nonylphenol ethoxylate as demulsifier. The effect of process parameters on removing acids was reviewed, such as volume ratio of TMAH to ammonia, volume ratio of deacidification agents to diesel, demulsifier dosage, deacidification temperature and deacidification time. The results showed that the optimum deacidification process was that volume ratio of TMAH to ammonia was 10:1, volume ratio of deacidification agents to diesel was 0.7:1, demulsifier dosage was 0.15 mL, deacidification temperature was 293 K and deacidification time was 5 min. Under the optimum process, deacidification rate of reached 88.36%. The deacidification process effectively removed acids in diesel, had a little effect on other physicochemical properties of diesel, moreover, the color of treated diesel also was greatly improved.