Desulphurization of Commercial Diesel Fuel using Activated Carbon-Based Metal Oxide Nanocomposites

Abstract

This paper presents a slight on desulphurization process of the commercial diesel fuel using the carbon-based metal oxide nanocomposites such as graphene oxide, ZnO, rGO as a nano-adsorbent, activated carbon (PAC and AC) and charcoal Granular active carbon (GAC) to produce a fuel less than 10 ppm sulphur content. The synthesised of sorbents were achieved using incipient impregnation, microwaved-assisted and chemical exfoliation methods. The materials were characterized using Thermogrametric Analyzer (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD), Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) technics. The examination effect of operating conditions on the adsorption capacity with DBT and Sulphur compounds adsorption, the isotherms and the adsorption kinetic models were evaluated. The experimental data for PAC and AC were well suited to Freundlich isotherm and pseudo second-order kinetic models. The results shown that the sulphur feed concentration, the space velocity and the functional groups of the adsorbents had a considerable effect on the adsorption. In addition, it was observed that the temperature in the range of 30 to 600 o C had a significant effect on the adsorption of Sulphur compounds from diesel fuel using 20 wt% of sorbents. The rGO substrate which contained abundant oxygen functional groups promoted the dispersion metal oxide and increased the adsorption efficiency of sulphur compounds (H 2 S, SO 3 and SO 2 ) by providing oxygen ions weakly bound to the sulphur molecules. For the desulfurization process by adsorption, PAC and AC exhibited a better affinity for 85% removal of sulphur compared to the GAC and GO.