ARTICLE pubs.acs.org/IECR
Desulfurization of Model Gasoline on Modified Bentonite Xiao-lin Tang, Xuan Meng, and Li Shi* The State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, People’s Republic of China ABSTRACT: This work mainly involved the investigation of the adsorption of propylmercaptan (PM) on modified bentonite adsorbents. The adsorbents were prepared by loading it separately with Cu2þ, Cuþ, Fe3þ, and MnO4. In general, these bentonite adsorbents tested for sulfur adsorption capacity at breakthrough followed the order: KMnO4bentonite > Cu(I)bentonite > Cu(II)bentonite > Fe(III)bentonite. Several factors that influence the desulfurization capability, including loading and baking temperature, were investigated. The results of X-ray diffraction (XRD), nitrogen sorption (BET), thermal analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy showed that the ability of modified bentonite to adsorb PM depends strongly on its surface chemistry, particularly on the presence of basic oxygen-containing groups and acid content. The high sulfur capacities of KMnO4bentonite and Fe(III)bentonite were because of the powerful oxidization of MnO4 and Fe3þ. The high sulfur capacities of Cu(I)bentonite and Cu(II)bentonite were due to π-complexation.
1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, one of the most important issues is environmental restrictions regarding the quality of transportation fuels produced by refineries. Strict environmental regulations require the removal of sulfur from gasoline to very low (
