Investigation of Deep Desulfurization of Model Fuel Using Cerium doped CMK

Deep desulfurization of hydrocarbon fuels is one of the main problems in the oil industry. This is because of the limitation in environmental laws and prevention of catalyst poisoning and also reactors and refinery instruments corrosion[1–7]. In this study, the synthesis of silicate nanoporous absorbent SBA-3 has been done with sodium silicate solution as a cheap source of Si and CTAB as a template. Then, the synthesized adsorbent was used as hard template for the production of its related carbon replica. Commercial sucrose was used as carbon source. Cerium(III) nitrate hexahydrate [(Ce(NO3)3 · 6H2O] with different weight ratios including 3%, 9% and 15% was supported on CMK The synthesized absorbents were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that mesoporous structure is present in the synthesized materials with cerium salt entrance to pore structure of mesoporous carbon replica.In the second step sulfur removal of model heptane containing 100 ppm of debenzothiophene (DBT) with synthesized absorbent has been done. measurement of Concentration of DBT were carried out by UV-visible spectroscopy using calibration curve at 325 nm.Effective parameters in absorption process including time, temperature and metal content were studied. Design of experiment according to CCD method directed to experience 14 test runs. RSM was used for the investigation of effective parameters and their interaction of the desulfurization yield. The order of importance of factors is as follows: time> temperature> metal content. The obtained quadrative model is significant but the LOF is not. From all absorption data it was determined that Ce-CMK 9% absorbent has highest amount of absorption, 1.56 mg S/gr Ads.