Removal of sulfur compounds from real diesel fuel employing the encapsulated mesoporous material adsorbent Co/MCM-41 in a fixed-bed column

In this study, sulfur compounds were removed from real diesel fuel in a continuous system employing the encapsulated mesoporous material with cobalt. The Co/MCM-41 was characterized with the help of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) techniques, Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and BET surface area. The effects of two variables, namely the height (2-6 cm) of the bed and the rate of flow (0.8-2 mL min-1) were investigated. The maximum capacity (1310.63 mg. g-1) of the bed was achieved with the following ideal values: column height of 6 cm, the rate of flow of 0.8 mL min-1, and a preliminary concentration of 12,000 mg. L-1 of sulfur. The bed depth influenced the time of breakthrough and exhaustion in a column apparatus operating at a low flow rate. The Thomas and YoonNelson models were used to anticipate the breakthrough curves (BTC) and compute the usual laboratory continuous adsorption characteristics required for the best design of this process. According to the regression coefficient studies, the Yoon model outperformed the Thomas model. The BTC effectiveness demonstrated that Co/MCM-41 can be employed for application in fixed-bed adsorption systems for sulfur concentration removal.