Original scientific paper
KINETIC, EQUILIBRIUM AND STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF DIESEL FUEL ADSORPTIVE DESULFURIZATION
Marko Mužic
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb
Katica Sertić-Bionda
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb
Tamara Adžamić
; Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Zagreb
Abstract
Desulfurization of hydrocarbon fuels has lately become one of the most important processes in petroleum refining. Increasingly stringent environmental protection regulations mean that motor fuel producers must improve their existing technology and to start considering alternative ways of removing sulfur from fuels. It is very difficult for currently available technology to treat diesel fuel and achieve sulfur content of less than 10 mg kg-1. The compounds that remain in fractions with 500 mg kg-1 sulfur, depending on the origin of the feed, are usually in the form of refractory compounds which are mainly alkyl-dibenzotiophenes with one or two alkyl groups on 4- and/or 6-positions. These compounds severely inhibit conventional hydrodesulfurization processes. Adsorption is a process that can be applied for diesel fuel desulfurization. The idea is to selectively separate less than 1 wt.% of fuel mass by selective adsorption for removing sulfur, and leave the 99 wt.% of non-sulfur-containing fuel mass untouched. Adsorptive desulfurization was carried out in laboratory apparatus designed for batch adsorption applying activated carbon and aluminium oxide. Kinetic and equilibrium analysis of the adsorption process was done. The results of these experiments showed that activated carbon had significantly better performance regarding the lowering of sulfur content and adsorption capacity. Statistical analysis of the data obtained from the experiments, carried out according to 23 factorial design, was used to determine the influence of time, initial sulfur concentration, activated carbon mass and their interactional effects on sulfur content and adsorption capacity.
Keywords
diesel fuel; rafination by adsorbtion; removal of sulfur containing substances; activated carbon; activated alumina; chemical equilibrium of heterogenous system; process mathematical statistic model
Hrčak ID:
43459
URI
Publication date:
30.9.2009.
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