Ultrasound assisted approach for the desulfurization of model fuel using ionic liquid anchored carbon obtained from Prosopis juliflora

Abstract

Carbon from the wood of Prosopis juliflora tree was oxidized and blended with minimal amount of activated charcoal and modified using trioctylmethylammonium chloride (Ionic liquid) for adsorptive removal of sulfur from the model fuel oil, Dibenzothiophene (DBT) in n-hexane. The oxidative desulfurization was performed by ultrasonication and the mechanism was ascertained by characterization of adsorbent material before and after adsorption using characterization techniques such as UV, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, XRD, XRF, XPS and TGA respectively. The porous morphology and specific surface area of the adsorbent was characterized using BET-N2 isotherm and the material was found to be mesoporous with specific area of 104.86 m2 g−1. The removal efficiency of 100 mg L−1 Dibenzothiophene under oxidized condition with 0.3 g of adsorbent dosage and ultrasound assistance for 60 min was found to be 99%. From the isotherm studies, kinetic models and thermodynamic parameters it was found that the adsorption process is endothermically favourable following pseudo-second-order kinetics. The regeneration of the carbonaceous adsorbent was achieved using n-pentane as the solvent.