DESULFURIZATION AND DENITROGENATION OF LIQUID FUEL

Abstract

In this study, acid treated activated alumina was used to remove sulfur and nitrogen present in the liquid fuel. Dibenzothiophene (DBT) was used as a sulfur compound and quinoline was used as nitrogen compound in iso-octane which is a model liquid fuel. Adsorption of sulfur and nitrogen compounds onto acid treated activated alumina was conducted . in batch adsorption systems. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Brunauer—Emmett—Teller (BET) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) studies were performed to understand the mechanism of DBT and quinoline adsorption onto acid treated activated alumina. BET surface area of acid treated alumina was found to be 129.3 m2/g. Mono-component adsorption of compounds were explained by isotherm models like Langmuir, Freundlich and Redlich-Peterson (R-P) isotherm models. For both nitrogen and sulfur, R-P isotherm model predicted the equilibrium data well. Binary-component adsorption studies were performed by mixing both DBT and quinoline in iso-octane in measured concentrations. Binary-component equilibrium data was explained by multi-component isotherm models like Non-modified Langmuir model, Modified Langmuir 'isotherm, Extended Langmuir isotherm, Extended Freundlich isotherm, Sheindorf-Rebuhn-Sheintuch (SRS) model, Non-modified R-P model and Modified R-P model. The extended Freundlich adsorption model, showed the best fit to the binary experimental sorption data