Composite Nano-Catalyst for An Environmentally Friendly Fuel by Oxidative Desulfurization

Production of clean fuel has recently become one of the most important goals for petroleum refining industries. The objective of this work is to obtain such clean fuel using simple and easy process under safe conditions. For this purpose, batch oxidative desulfurization (ODS) process is considered here to remove sulfur compounds found in light gas oil using a new composite synthetic homemade nano-catalyst. First the support for the new catalyst, which is HY zeolite nanoparticles, is prepared using sol-gel method. The support is then employed to generate the synthetic composite nano-catalyst which is made of copper oxide and nickel oxide using the impregnation method with different proportions of the active components such as: ۵% CuO +۲۵ % NiO, ۱۰ % CuO +۲۰ % NiO, ۱۵ % CuO +۱۵ % NiO, ۲۰ % CuO +۱۰ % NiO and ۲۵ % CuO +۵% NiO. An excellent distribution of the active metals with high surface area and pore volume as a result high activity has obtained. A fully automated batch reactor is used for the oxidative desulphurization of sulfur compounds and the performance of the new nano-catalyst at different safe reaction conditions (reaction temperature from ۳۵۳-۴۱۳ K, reaction time from ۳۰-۹۰ min) is evaluated in terms of sulfur removal.

Keywords:

Clean desulfurization , clean fuel , Copper oxide , Nickle oxide , Batch reactor