Investigation of petroleum products dehydration using natural zeolite and activated carbon

Abstract

This novel research presents an investigation on petroleum products dehydration using the adsorption method by low-cost adsorbents. To investigate the performance of proposed process intended to separate emulsified water, synthetic stabilized water emulsions in different petroleum products (Gasoline, Kerosene, and Gas oil) which equal 300, 600, and 800 ppm were prepared. Afterwards, under batch conditions, natural zeolite and activated carbon as economic adsorbents were utilized for the dehydration process. The characteristics of adsorbent was examined using SEM and XRD analysis. The obtained results from BET analysis also depicted that the specific surface area of activated carbon was considerably more than that of zeolite. Results showed that both zeolites and activated carbon can effectively purify petroleum products from undesirable emulsified water. The comparison of the adsorbents’ efficiency indicated that activated carbon has a higher affinity than zeolite for water in gasoline and gas oil, however, they had almost the same adsorption capacity in kerosene dehydration. The maximum water removal percentage of gas oil, kerosene and gasoline using zeolite was 84.84, 92.17, and 88.64, respectively. Dehydration by activated carbon also led to 86.44, 93.43 and 90.2 per cent water removal from gas oil, kerosene and gasoline, respectively.

Keywords:

• Activated carbon
• Gas oil
• Gasoline
• Kerosene
• natural zeolite