Mathematical modeling and experimental study of sulfur removal process from light and heavy crude oil in a bed occupied by ferric oxide nanocatalysts

Abstract

Abstract The elimination of hydrogen sulfide from the crude oil considered as an important process in the oil refineries which reduces sulfur concentration of crude oil Application of nanocatalysts in the elimination of sulfur from oil considered as a modern method. In this research, the ferric oxide nanocatalyst with diameter of 54 to 91 nanometers has been used in the refinement of sour crude oil. In this work, the theoretical equations have been driven in order to investigate the sour oil desalination process in a nanocatalytic bed, mathematically. Several experiments have been designed to evaluate the process of hydrogen sulfide separation from sour crude oil. Two different types of crude oil have been used in this research. The API of heavy crude oil is 18.6 and the API of light sample is 33.4. The effects of various operational parameters such as operating conditions, geometric parameters have been studied in this study. In addition, the effect of nanocatalyst size variation on the sweetening process is evaluated. Based on the obtained results, temperature of 55\xa0°C and pressure of 1.6 bar have been introduced as optimal temperature and pressure, respectively. Also, the experimental data show that the maximum amount of sulfur compounds is separated from sour oil when the diameter of the catalytic bed is 2.5\xa0cm.