Abstract
In this work, a series of solid desulfurizers were prepared via loading of an inorganic alkali on activated carbon (AC). The optimal synthetic procedure of the solid desulfurizer is to pretreat AC with nitric acid (68.0 wt %) for 4 h and then impregnate the sample in a 0.02 g/mL NaHCO3 aqueous solution at 35 degrees C for 2 h. Finally, this solid adsorbent desulfurizer was calcined at 500 degrees C for 4 h, and referred to as NC-AC. This solid desulfurizer was used to treat Saudi Arabian crude oil with a mass ratio of 30:1 (crude oil:NC-AC) at 55 degrees C for 3.5 h. A desulfurization efficiency as high as 32.4 wt % was achieved with optimized NC-AC. The NC-AC samples had larger pore diameters and evenly distributed alkali leading to high desulfurization efficiency. The desulfurization mechanisms of the AC supported desulfurizer were analyzed, indicating that both physical and chemical adsorption occurred on the desulfurizer. This desulfurizer also has good performance to adsorb thiophenes, alkylthiophene, and benzothiophenes in the crude oil, and H2S, thioether and mercaptan in the gasoline fraction.