Design of new activated carbon based adsorbents for improved desulfurization of heavy gas oil: experiments and kinetic modeling

Abstract

Abstract In this work, adsorption desulfurization is considered for making cleaner fuel. New efficient adsorbents have been designed by using two active metal oxides mainly potassium permanganate (KMnO4) and potassium phosphate (KPO4·3H2O) on Activated Carbon (AC). Ultrasonic assisted impregnation method (IWI) is used in designing the adsorbents offering high pore volume, pore size, surface chemistry, and high surface area. Use of ultrasonic method increases the dispersion of the active material (groups) on AC leading to increased number of collisions between O-atom on AC-support resulting in high sulfur removal from fuel. KMnO4 on AC shows higher adsorption capacity towards sulfur than KPO4·3H2O at the same operating conditions. New results with respect to sulfur removal has obtained compared with those obtained by previous studies. Finally, the adsorption kinetic parameters of such process are developed. Thomas and Yoon–Nelson models and the experimental data are used for this purpose using linear and non-linear regression analysis. Yoon–Nelson kinetic model fits well with the experiments data better than Thomas kinetic model in the entire adsorption column system.