Removal of Butyl Mercaptan from Gas Streams by Reactive Adsorption
Mia Sanda,
Ion Onuțu,
Cristina Maria Dușescu-Vasile,
Gabriel Vasilievici,
Dorin Bomboș,
Marian Băjan,
Gheorghe Brănoiu
Affiliations
Mia Sanda
Department of Petroleum Refining Engineering and Environmental Protection, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
Ion Onuțu
Department of Petroleum Refining Engineering and Environmental Protection, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
Cristina Maria Dușescu-Vasile
Department of Petroleum Refining Engineering and Environmental Protection, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
Gabriel Vasilievici
National Institute for Research Development for Chemistry and Petrochemistry-ICECHIM-București, 202 Spl. Independenței, 060021 Bucharest, Romania
Dorin Bomboș
Department of Chemistry, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
Marian Băjan
Department of Petroleum Refining Engineering and Environmental Protection, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
Gheorghe Brănoiu
Department of Well Drilling, Extraction and Transport of Hydrocarbons, Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, 39 Bucharest Blvd., 100680 Ploiesti, Romania
1-butanethiol, a volatile mercaptan that is harmful and has a persistent odor, was adsorbed from a gaseous stream onto granulated activated carbon (AC) that was doped with Cu, Fe, and Zn oxides. The adsorbents were prepared by precipitating salts of the respective metals using an ammonia solution, along with the inclusion of an anti-caking agent known as Pluronic-123. Characterization of the three prepared adsorbents was conducted using electron microscopy (SEM), textural analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, FTIR, and XRD. The study’s results indicate that the adsorbents exhibit different textural characteristics and variations in the size and shape of the metal oxide clusters deposited on the activated carbon. These differences also led to variations in the adsorption capacity for 1-butanethiol among the three adsorbents.
