Adsorptive desulfurization of model oil using untreated, acid activated and magnetite nanoparticle loaded bentonite as adsorbent

The present research work focuses on a novel ultraclean desulfurization process of model oil by the adsorption method using untreated, acid activated and magnetite nanoparticle loaded bentonite as adsorbent. The parameters investigated are effect of contact time, adsorbent dose, initial dibenzothiophene (DBT) concentration and temperature. Experimental tests were conducted in batch process. Pseudo first and second order kinetic equations were used to examine the experimental data. It was found that pseudo second order kinetic equation described the data of the DBT adsorption onto all types of adsorbents very well. The isotherm data were analyzed using Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The Langmuir isotherm model fits the data very well for the adsorption of DBT onto all three forms of adsorbents. The adsorption of DBT was also investigated at different adsorbent doses and was found that the percentage adsorption of DBT was increased with increasing the adsorbent dose, while the adsorption in mg/g was decreased with increasing the adsorbent dose. The prepared adsorbents were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). (C) 2015 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B. V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.