Study on Adsorption of Dibenzothiophene by Cu-Immobilized Alginate Adsorbent from Diesel Fuel

With the increase of the urbanization and industrialization, the consumption of fossil fuels isalso gradually increasing. These fuels essentially includes large concentrations of sulfur compoundswhich produce hazardous oxides such as SOx during combustion, causing significant seriousenvironmental pollution [۱]. Accordingly, efficient removal of organosulfur compounds like thiophene(T), benzothiophene (BT) and dibenzothiophene (DBT) from gasoline and diesel fuel is a hot topic ofresearch [۲, ۳]. In this study, adsorption of DBT on copper(II)-alginate (Cu(II)-A) beads containingsustainable PET-AC investigated. The choice of Cu(II) is based on the expected higher affinity fororganosulfur molecules and economic point of view. Structural and surface properties of PET-AC/Cu(II)- A beads were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD),scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyzer and N۲ adsorptiondesorptiontest. DBT adsorption ability of the fabricated adsorbent beads was studied by static adsorptionexperiments. The effects of PET-AC mass ratio in Cu(II)-A beads on the surface area and desulfurizationefficiency were studied. The adsorption kinetics, adsorption isotherms, thermodynamic parameters andadsorbent reusability were also researched. The adsorption isotherms could be correlated by the Langmuirisotherm and the maximum adsorption capacity reached up to ۶۲.۹ mg g-۱. The study of kineticparameters showed that the DBT removal had followed a pseudo-second order kinetic model. Lewis acidbaseand π–π interactions might be the driving force of the desulfurization process. The adsorbent couldbe also reused for ۴ successive runs with negligible loss in desulfurization capability. All of these featuresmake the PET-AC/Cu(II)-A as a potential adsorbent towards desulfurization from fuels.