Effect Of HNO₃ Treatment of Commercial Activated Carbon on Adsorptive Desulfurization of DBT and 4,6-DMDBT

A commercial activated carbon, with treatment of HNO₃ was investigated as adsorbents of sulfur solutions prepared of n-decane and same concentrations of dibenzothiophene (DBT) and 4,6-dimethyildibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) that varied between 400 and 1600 mg/l. To characterize the initial and modified carbons nitrogen adsorption, x-ray diffraction (XRD) and fourier transform(FT-IR) were applied. surface area and pore volumes were significantly enhanced upon HNO₃ treatment and adsorption capacity for sulfur compounds followed the order: AC < AC-HNO₃. Adsorption kinetics and isotherm studies were performed, and the adsorption data fitted well to pseudo second-order model and Langmuir isotherm model.

Keywords:

Adsorption , Activated carbon , Model fuel , HNO₃ treatment , DBT , 4 , 6-DMDBT , Desulfurization