PROCESS MODELING AND KINETIC ESTIMATION FOR DESULFURIZATION OF DIESEL FUEL USING NANO- ZnO/Al2O3

In the present paper, a gamma alumina (gamma-Al2O3) loaded zinc oxide (ZnO) nano-catalyst (ZnO/gamma-Al2O3) has been synthesized and used to accelerate the removal of sulfur compounds from light gas oil by oxidative desulfurization (ODS) process. The synthesized nano-catalysts have been characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Brunauer-EmmettTeller (BET). The ODS process has been conducted in a batch reactor at various reaction temperatures and batch times varying between 30 to 90 C-degrees and 20 to 80 min, respectively. DBT removal was highest (93.781%) while using synthesized nano-catalyst (9% ZnO/gamma-Al2O3) at 90(degrees)C and 80 min reaction time. Based on the obtained experimental data, a new mathematical modeling technique was performed for the ODS operation under mild experimental conditions to evaluate the most appropriate kinetic variables for the newly synthesized nano-catalysts. Simulation results indicate a good match with experimental observations with less than 5% absolute average error for all runs. The optimization procedure of the process condition displays that > 98% DBT could be eliminated within 200 min, at 87 C-degrees, in the existence of synthesized nano-catalyst (9% ZnO/gamma Al2O3).