Real heavy crude oil desulfurization onto nanoporous activated carbon implementing batch adsorption process: equilibrium, kinetics, and thermodynamic studies

In the current study, the desulfurization process was adopted for sulfur content removal from the real heavy crude oil (HCO) containing 2.5 wt.%. The desulfurization process of HCO was carried out by implementing a batch adsorption desulfurization process with AC as an adsorbent. The sorbent activated carbon (AC) was characterized. The operating conditions, such as the AC dose, temperature, and contact time were examined. It was found that 0.8 gm AC, 50 degrees C, and 90 min were the optimal operating parameters. The Langmuir, Freundlich, and Temkin isotherm model types have all been employed. The adsorption isotherm of Temkin models with a determination coefficient (R-2 = 0.99) provided the best representation of the data. The kinetics models were investigated such as; pseudo-first and second-order in addition to the Intra-Particle diffusion. The adsorption process was observed to obey a pseudo-first-order adsorption kinetic model under a determination coefficient R-2 of 0.95. The Gibbs Free Energy (Delta G(o)), Entropy (Delta S-o), and Enthalpy (Delta H-o) were calculated. According to the results, sulfur adsorption is endothermic, spontaneous, and enhances the random pattern of sulfur molecules onto the surface of adsorbent. The desulfurization efficiency of the processed crude oil was 28%, with the sulfur content dropping from 2.5 to 1.8%.