Study on the Role of Metal Oxides in Desulphurization of Some Petroleum Fractions

Metal oxides are highly reactive towards the compounds of sulphur, particularly thioles. A comparative study was made of the desulphurization potential of various metal oxides such as MnO2, PbO2, ArO3, Al2O3, MgO2, ZnO2 and silica on reaction with Jhal Magsi crude oil and its distillate fractions, i.e., kerosene and diesel oil. The effect of time was also studied and the desulphurization was performed for time durations of one hour, three hours and six hours. The analysis of the residual fractions indicated that significant sulphur depletion occurred with lead oxide and manganese dioxide in the one-hour and three-hour reaction times in all three samples. Lead oxide (PbO2) brought about a maximum desulphurization of 60.28% in the case of crude oil, 54.54% in the case of diesel oil and 52.57% in the case of kerosene oil in a 01 h reaction time. Similarly, manganese oxide (MnO2) caused a maximum desulphurization of 58.55% in the case of crude oil, 49.38% in the case of diesel oil and 53.30% in case of kerosene oil in a 3 h reaction time. The rest of the metal oxides also exhibited good sulphur removal activity, but their performance is not as noteworthy as in the cases of PbO2 and MnO2.