Adsorption desulfurization of dibenzothiophene in a model and diesel fuel by hybrid activated charcoal/mixed metal oxide

Adsorption desulfurization of dibenzothiophene DBT in model and commercial diesel fuel was conducted to obtain the ultra-clean fuel by using three adsorbents: mixed metal oxides of copper-manganese (MMO), activated charcoal (AC), and hybrid activated charcoal/mixed metal oxide (AC/MMO). The adsorbents were characterized by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Field emission scanning electron micropores (FESEM-EDS), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (XRD), Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The hybrid AC/MMO was prepared by the co-precipitation method which was different from the previously published studies. It has the best performance in ADS of DBT at optimized conditions (0.1 g dosage, 10 ml of 1500 ppm DBT, 90 minutes, 250 C and 500 RPM), the adsorption capacity qe was 23.8 mgS.g-1 and the sulfur removal 91.1%. The adsorption process followed pseudo-Second order kinetics and Langmuir adsorption isotherm model. In of high-sulfur commercial diesel fuel, 99% of total S-compounds have been removed.