Clay-Iron Nanocomposite for the Removal of Sulfur as Toxic Pollutant from Fuel by Catalytic Oxidative Desulfurization

Abstract

The current environmental pollution has great impact on climate change and the present study was aimed at removal of sulfur as a pollutant for environment on combustion of kerosene fuel using clay, namely attapulgite and magnetic iron (ATP)-Fe3O4 nanocomposite. To lower the toxic sulfur and to enhance the property of reduced sulfur fuel specifically the electrical conductivity (EC) was also improved by the addition of quality improver additives. The (ATP)-Fe3O4 nanocomposite was synthesized by co-precipitation method and the structure, and morphology were evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The average size of Fe-NPs which helps in the oxidative desulfurization was found to be <100 nm, and the toxic sulfur content in fuel was reduced up to 71% from its original using 05mg/mL of nanocomposite at 150°C for 30 min along with CH3COOH and H2O2 proceed with water washing. The EC of the oxidative desulfurized (ODS) fuel was enhanced by the addition of (0.5, 0.7 and 1.0ppm) STADIS 450 additive as compared to MEROX kerosene fuel (untreated). The ODS kerosene showed greater stability of EC over MEROX kerosene.

Keywords

• magnetic nanoparticles
• attapulgite-iron oxide nano-composite
• oxidative desulfurization
• electrical conductivity
• kerosene